Ah! My Space Goddess!
by ceroxon
Summary: The time of Keiichi and the Goddess is long forgotten. Humanity has reached the stars and meet aliens peoples. But what happened to the Goddess and Demons? What is the link between Keiichi of the 2Oth century and the "Captain Keiichi" and his sisters of this future? A story that links the present and the future, and those who have forgotten the past are condemned to repeat it.
1. Chapter 1

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 75% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the oh my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "oh my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of Nena Camadera and the, I therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.

01) The Space Emperor.

Somewhere in the distant future, very distant . The time Keiichi and the goddesses is finish since a long time. Humanity has reached the stars and meet aliens peoples. But what happened to the Gods and Demons? What link is there between the Morisato Keiichi and the goddesses of the 20th century and the "Captain Keiichi" and his family of this future?

This story begins at the General Headquarters of Interstellar Government. The woman, sitting at her ebony desk, was worried. She was facing the large window that revealed the amazing peaks of the city lit by the moon. She shuddered at the thought of what was happening right now.

Sayoko Mishima, the youngest person who ever sat on the chair of the Presidency of the Government of the Earth. She governs all mankind since the death of James Carthew, her predecessor, former boss, mentor and friend. She paused. Remembering the era, which seemed so near and yet so far, where she took her job here in the morning as her assistant and helped him to better fulfill this function.

Everything had changed in the two years since he'd been taken by the apoplexy crisis.

As the vice president, she automatically took his place by the time new elections were held. Elections that she had won single-handedly. Her handling of the crisis with the Zoreens during her short mandate allowed her to show the image of a dynamic young woman, competent and charismatic able to fulfill the Supreme function. The people trusted her and was carrying them to the best of this task with all the integrity that allowed the world of politics.

She was no stranger to bad days, there'd been an increase in them ever since a large amount of alarming reports from Deneph had begun to pile up on her desk. However, today made the others look mild in comparison.

She reflected on a significant problem that preoccupied for some time.

"He is late. The spacecraft of Deneph has already returned from his last mission and I am still waiting for Gan-chan" she said.

"You called for me, Ma'am?" Asked her secretary, Sora Hasegawa, as the woman entered her office.

Sora has worked for Sayoko for some time now, and an informal friendship and a certain respect has formed between the two women.

"Oh, excuse me, I was thinking aloud. We still have no news of Gan-chan?"

"Not yet".

"That's not like him. As you know, he is one of our best agents. You know the 7 th planet in the 16 th solar system in the galaxy?"

"Yes. This is Deneph, which is inhabited by a primitive civilization if I'm not mistaken." Sora said.

"You're not wrong, but we found all kinds of bizarre events and we sent Gan-chan to investigate at the request of General Lind." Explained the president, lighting a cigarette to calm her nerves.

This is when a horrible scream came from the hallway.

""What was that? Did you hear that?" Exclaimed Sayoko.

"Wait, I'll see." Sora immediately rushed to see what was going on.

Upon opening the door, a huge man covered with hair, like a Neanderthal, rushed into the office, wearing nothing but a torn animal skin.

Sora could do nothing except cringe at the repulsive being.

The creature stopped directly in front of the office of Sayoko.

"Who are you? What is happening?" She exclaimed while preparing to operate a laser mechanism installed in her office for protection.

The rat-man made no Gesture, instead attempting to speak. Unfortunately, his vocal cords could not articulate any words Sayoko could understand.

"But ... You are?! IMPOSSIBLE !" Sayoko was surprised she recognized the monster.

"The Emperor ... Space." The shaggy giant grunted.

"It's amazing. A monkey who speaks." Sora was surprised.

"Emperor...Space?" The President parroted, uncertain she understood what the rat-man was saying.

"De-evolution…of the Species." Added the "rat" who seemed to calm down as he handed a letter to Sayoko with a trembling hand, before collapsing, struck in the back. The guards of the President intervened and had fired their guns anesthetics.

"Take this rat…uh…this… MAN to the infirmary and ensure that he receives the best care." President immediately ordered.

The guards withdrew, taking the man-rat without really understanding what had happened.

"You think the monster is Gan-chan?" Sora asked.

"Yes, I'm absolutely certain. It wore his outfit and I recognized his eyes. I told you he is the best agent in our solar system. This must be what is happening on the planet Deneph. It seems that Humans are becoming apes. They devolve without explanation. Those most affected degenerate past the ape until the time humanity were only rodents"

Sayoko then opened the envelope that Gan-chan had handed handed her some minutes earlier.

"It has only been twenty-four hours, but I can feel the change happening very quickly. I fear I will be unable to speak or think clearly soon. I was touched by a de-evolution device on Deneph several days ago. I need to return to Earth to warn the President of what I have learned before I become completely inhuman".

"I learned that on Deneph the contagion is caused by a mysterious figure called the Emperor of Space. I do not know if he is Human or Denephean. How it spreads the risk, I do not know, but it is a power that secretly affects the Humans there. I did not feel anything coming until I noted my own thoughts growing hazy, almost bestial at times."

"Cannot write much now... hard to hold a pencil... did not dare leave my cabin... have so changed... my brain becomes heavy... would have liked to learn more... "

The letter was finished.

The first reports about the infection came from Deneph, weeks before. On this beautiful planet, amidst its largely unexplored vast jungles and huge oceans, flourished a considerably-sized Human colony. Centered around the capital, Jovopolis, there were a dozen small cities of Humans; primarily composed of miners and loggers

From one of these colonial cities close to Jovopolis, came an amazing report. Humans were transformed into beasts! Humans, were inexplicably transformed into monkeys like animals, their bodies and becoming every day more like simple cattle. A terrifying flashback of human evolution! They were the victims of an atavism, a biological downgrade that made them fall from the ladder of evolution.

The President had trouble believing the first reports. However more soon followed the initial reports, leading to multiple cases of de-evolution. Already hundreds of Humans had fallen prey to this terrible metamorphosis. The settlers were beginning to panic.

Sayoko had sent scientists, specialists in global medicine to fight this terrible disease. But they had been unable to stop the cases of atavism or even to learn their cause. And the secret agent of the Planetary Police had learned nothing either. Gan-chan, their best agent, had only discovered that the damage was caused by a third party.

"He spoke of an "Space Emperor". Probably a code name for some mafia bosses, potential terrorist ... . Or Gan -chan not thinking clearly. We must do something if not the Earth and all the planets of the Confederation may be affected by this scourge and the existence of the entire human race could be at stake."

For a moment, the President fell silent, immersed in her thoughts.

Taking a deep breath of her cigarette, Sayoko made a decision.

"You have to call Captain Keiichi."

Whenever Sayoko thought about "Captain Keiichi", she could not be taken seriously, it was too... fanciful.

Captain Keiichi… his real name, Keiichi Morisato. The savior of the galaxy, serving humanity and living proof that heroes exist outside of fiction, proving that anything in the universe is possible… even the most uh…. Childish?

Sayoko could not believe it, even today. When the image of "Captain Keiichi" appeared in her mind, she was feeling herself like a child again and thought of the adventures of cartoon superheroes.

It is true that in that time, young men barely adult could occupy important positions and perform amazing feats, such as becoming President of humankind before age 30, but there were still some reasonable limits... that Captain Keiichi crossed constantly.

The President recalled her first meeting with the boy. Normally, she would have seen a very ordinary teenager with thick eyebrows that would surely have trouble finding a girlfriend. However, as he'd aided her in preventing a serious diplomatic crisis with the Denovuleans, she'd come to view him in a more positive light.

At the time, Sayoko had just come into office as the new President. Her first act of business was to visit the various planets under the Galactic Confederation.

Unfortunately, when she was visiting a Denovula moon for an important business summit involving a free trade policy with Earth, her ship encountered a bad storm and was then ransacked by pirates. The bandits had been hired by one of her political opponents (now in prison), her personal secret service, despite being well trained, had been caught off-guard by the four heavily-armed vessels, thus leading to a hostage situation.

The kidnapping was short-lived however. Less than two days later, as she tried to negotiate with his captors, a ship had passed nearby.

The pirates had seen the vessel as easy prey to capture and plunder. They'd mocked the seemingly harmless ship before taking out its engines and boarding them.

The rescue was fast, in all honesty. Let's just say that when Sayoko saw this young man in his space suit into her cell, neutralize the guards in a few moments and get to safety, it was the biggest surprise of her life.

That General Lind has launched a rescue operation to deliver her was perfectly normal of course, but she expected to see a military squad, not a single young man who was not even 20 years old, accompanied by a silver girl robot and a top model with brown skin and white hair.

She was even more surprised when she was mounted in the "Space Goddess" to discover that the boy who had rescued her was not working for the General or any government office.

Only this part of the history of captain was classified top secret. The rest of his adventures were however notorious.

Everyone had heard of Keiichi. Where all kinds of problems such as hostage taking, terrorism, piracy etc ... space. raged, the Captain would appear, like an old television hero of the 20th century, he and his strange family would "neutralize the threat", "save the innocent", and "restore order".

In short, Captain Keiichi and his sisters seemed straight out of a Wednesday morning anime, or that of a big budget movie.

Yet they did exist.

After the rescue of the President, his legend had spread quickly. At first, many simply believed it was a political scene setting or an urban legend spread by the media.

When he was officially awarded the "Space Cross", the highest honor that can be bestowed for bravery, people could finally see the face of the "hero".

Everyone was as surprised as had been the President and there disbelief only increased. People expected to see some sort of soldier with at least thirty years of experience at their back, with a classic squad. When they saw the slightly smaller than average teenager with his bushy eyebrows and his family, nobody believed. It was simply impossible that such a young had actually been able to accomplish the feats attributed to him.

This kind of thing could not happen in the real world. And yet...

Many had attempted to prove him for a fake. Keiichi had been invited to demonstrate his talents in all kinds of TV shows. Whether in sports or scientific disciplines, he had demonstrated that he was as smart and capable as he claimed.

Another striking feature of the boy was his private life. When he was not trying to solve a serious problem in the galaxy, he spent his time in his base on the moon, where he devoted himself to improving his "Beemerlem", a small vessel of planetary exploration and especially the "Space goddess", his starship, with his three "sisters", Megumi, Urd, Skuld.

His other leisure was to participate in shuttle races. The asteroid belt near Jupiter was very popular for that. The captain, under a false name, could often be found participating.

When it was finally accepted that, against all odds, that a boy both extraordinary and yet so ordinary did exist, and was not a myth, it was euphoria.

"Captain Keiichi" became a model for the whole of humanity. He was living proof of what each can potentially accomplish.

He now had his picture on the packets of cornflakes, his life was part of history courses in schools, there was even talk of producing a film of his exploits.

Now, the children adored him and the girls swooned thinking about his "irresistible charm" (he had not). The clothes he wore most of the time was a flexible spacesuit. Brown arms and legs with a white chest. The only distinctive signs were the 'K' on his belt and the large, light blue circle on the right side of his chest.

The rest of his team was equally disconcerting.

First was Urd, the shapeshifter. A creature created through genetic manipulation that had the appearance of a young woman with brown skin and white hair. She always dressed in a 'relaxed' style.

Then came Skuld. A female robot slightly taller than Urd. Pilot of the "Space goddess" and technical expert with superhuman strength…and rather pretty, despite her appearance of a gray, metallic robot. The soft metal which composed her body, and her hair, gave her a perfect human appearance, except for color and some obvious mechanical parts. You could find her "cute" without being able to ignore that she was entirely artificial.

She wore no clothes to speak of, but the different paintings affixed to her body created the illusion of clothing, preventing others from seeing her as 'naked'.

Finally, the strangest member: Professor Megumi.

It was actually the brain of the greatest biologist and astrophysicist who disappeared 19 years ago. Although very young at the time a serious accident forced her to transfer her brain in a small floating vehicle with a mechanical arm. So far no one saw her as a robot, the top of the small vehicle being fitted with a round TV screen that reflected Megumi's brain. It definitely could be a transparent dome for us to see the brain directly, but to expose his brain matter to sunlight would have been suicidal. The TV screen was used to maintain the illusion.

To this was added Banpei, a little robot 50 centimeters high, and Sigel, a protoplasmic life form with metamorphic abilities even greater than those of Urd, but whose intelligence did not exceed that of a two-year old child.

The captain had his detractors, however. General Lind was the first.

Lind was a woman barely older than the President, hair cut short and dyed purple (this was in no way unusual at that time).

Indeed, the armed forces chief Human did not like the kind a 'lone wolf' who was accountable to no one and could do as he pleased without any control. However, above all, she hated the idea that the Captain Keiichi was able to solve situations so effectively with only his team to rely on when it came to situations of a military matter.

Having said that, Sayoko remember a conversation she once had with General Lind.

"Madam President, allow me to advise you not to call on Captain Keiichi. We still have highly effective security forces." She'd told the general.

Sayoko agreed with Lind in principle but had to accept the facts, namely that Captain Keiichi was often the best solution to various threats she met during his term.

Returning to the present, Sayoko weighed these words with the current situation.

"This disaster is the work of a enemy and no a natural plague. I'm going to call the Captain and instruct the General to take any action otherwise. Hopefully this story will not go away."

Sayoko was the only one able to liaise from her office with Keiichi, whose house was established in a secret place (For safety reasons) on the far side of the moon.

Moments after receiving the signal. A ship took off from the base in question, bearing within the greatest hero of the galaxy.

The evening progressed. By nightfall, the concern of the President and her secretary was rising.

"The captain is late. Yet he travels faster than light. He should already be here. I'm starting to worry." Commented Sora.

"But no, no. He is always very punctual. He should be here any second now, don't worry." Said Sayoko.

"It would be useless anyways. I'm here."

Keiichi had arrived, discreetly without being noticed, as usual.

"My sisters are handling the paperwork. Take this opportunity to explain why you called for me.".

The president spent the rest of the night explaining the situation to the boy, to submit all reports in its possession and to provide all the information, and other accreditations he would need for his mission

"What will you do Captain?" Asked the president after completing her presentation.

"I'll go directly to Deneph after retrieving my sisters, it's always the first thing I do when I come here." Keiichi said.

"Despite their many…unique qualities, you certainly have a strange family."

"No doubt, but it is what has made me what I am today."

"And all of mankind can only rejoice."

"Well, I think we've finished the conversation. I'll get Urd and Megumi and then head off to Deneph. I'll start with Urd, as she can be really hard to snag from the bar," said Keiichi, leaving the President's office.

Indeed. Urd's binge drinking was legendary. The shapeshifter considered the station bar like best. Especially since it was inside the President's own headquarters. She could find alcohol in extremely high quality.

Her game was then to find someone who would offer her drinks. Of course, she could pay for herself as Keiichi's team wasn't suffering financially. However, she found it much more fun to take the appearance of a beautiful, unknown woman and seduce someone at the bar, such as a handsome boy or perhaps get invited to share a drink. It was much more fun than drinking at the counter alone, the glasses piling up one by one by herself.

Note that by her unique constitution, Urd could not get a hangover unless she wished it. Her creators, her parents, had endowed her with this ability when they'd created her.

If the boy was kind it was not uncommon for Urd to be…generous. An adventurous night, with everyone always remembering the "beautiful stranger" they'd encountered, particularly after receiving the fabled "Urd Kiss" that would never be forgotten.

Today, however, Urd had not sought a drinking buddy. Instead she found herself testing a new blue liquor that was growing fashionable in the more trendy bars. Therefore, it was not quite as difficult to retrieve her from the bar.

In contrast, Skuld was already in the "Space Goddess", as she rarely left. She did not like leaving her "baby" unattended. The robot-girl actually saw the ship as a full member of her family.

"It's a spaceship, a machine, and I'm a robot. So it is normal there is like a bond between "her" and me." She explained.

She knew every corner of the ship, which was normal, firstly because her electronic brain had a perfect memory, and secondly, because it was herself who had physically manufactured the ship. Certainly, she had realized the plans with Megumi, but Skuld had wanted to make the assembly of the whole ship herself. A human would have been completely unable, of course.

Megumi for its part, could not indulge in physical pleasure since the death of her body. Since she had been forced to transfer her brain into a small mechanical vehicle floating in the air, she no longer felt such desires, even though she would have been indulging it.

She therefore devoted herself to scientific research and to peruse the newly made top secret updates on the government science network which always had some sort of interesting activity.

After Keiichi has recovered his two sisters, they headed for the "Space Goddess", along the way joining with Skuld, who was waiting for them. They also met a young child.

"What? Is that Captain Keiichi? It is! And there, that brain floating in the small vehicle is Professor Megumi, and there is Skuld, the girl robot and finally the one who can change appearances at will, Urd!" Cried the boy, rushing to hug his idol with all the innocence of youth.

Keiichi narrowly dodged the boy, thinking him just a child running about without paying attention to where he was going, like all children his age.

"Pay attention boy, you risk hurting yourself if you do not watch where you're going," Urd said kindly

"No, wait. My name is Sentaro Kawanishi, but my friends call me Sen. I want to accompany you."

Keiichi well understood the child's reasoning. After all, he too was once a child who'd loved heroic idols and had wanted to become one himself. He'd succeeded after years of effort, though the maturity gained came at the cost of his parent's death. It had made him understand that the destiny of a young 'hero' was one full of responsibility and loneliness and many other things unenviable.

Keiichi Morisato was a hero certainly, but above all he was responsible. What fool would have really taken this naive child in his ship, considering all the dangers he would face? Certainly not him anyway.

"Listen boy. What you say makes me very happy. But life is not a game. You want to join me? You want to live as a "great adventure"? I understand. The first thing to do is... Grow. Study hard at school, earn a degree, and gain experience….Come back to me in 10 years. If you follow my advice well, then I promise you I'll consider your request. If I'm still alive of course.

The child, however, like all children would not be discouraged so easily. He then took out a kind of yoyo and launched it towards an apple located about twenty meters away, cutting its stem and knocking it to the ground.

"Beautiful display of accuracy. My compliments. However, it does not change what I just said. I know it may seem distasteful to you but when you're older and you think on this again, you'll see that I was right." Said Keiichi.

"But I..."

Keiichi, who did not have the time to talk for hours with the child, lifted him off the ground and set him a few meters away on a container stack, deciding to leave him there to meditate for a little while.

"Time to head to Deneph" he declared to his three "women" crew.

Before leaving, Urd turned his gaze to the child, giving him a blink and blowing him a little kiss from afar.

"Come back in 10 years so I can buy you a drink. I promise." She said before turning back to the boy.

"He must not believe that I will be discouraged like that," said Sentaro.

A few minutes later the ship "Space Goddess" took off under the gaze of the President.

While commanding the takeoff maneuver to pass the Earth's atmosphere to interstellar space, The Captain noticed something.

"You look troubled" Megumi noticed.

"No... It's probably nothing," he replied.

A few minutes later, when the ship was well on its course to Deneph, Keiichi rose from his seat and went to the rear hatch of the ship.

"Get out here." He declared suddenly.

"What's going on?" Urd asked.

With its electronic brain, Skuld had already analyzed and understood the situation.

"This is the same kid from this morning, eh?" she asked.

"Probably, I understood by looking at the weight controller. Our "Space Goddess" weighed 38 kilos too. It corresponds roughly to the size and morphology of the child. Bravo for his courage, but curse him for his rashness. "I TOLD YOU TO COME OUT!" Keiichi said.

Getting no answer, the Captain forced the door open, only to find Sentaro unconscious. The takeoff had had to be too brutal for his young age.

"Urd! The infirmary, quickly," he said, taking the child in his arms.

Shortly after Sentaro regained consciousness. Keiichi looked at him not with anger, but with relief that the child was well.

"I apologize, captain. I do not want to create trouble," said Sentaro, somewhat embarrassed.

"Then why did you board in secret?"

"Please do not send me back to Earth."

"Ah, that, you won't have to return to Earth. You've showed persistence and so I'm willing to take you with us to Deneph. However, once there, I will release you to the authorities who will organize your repatriation. Meanwhile I'll tell your parents you are here." Keiichi said.

"But I have no family." Sentaro replied sadly.

"What?"

"My parents were both killed in a space shuttle accident."

This declaration called out to Keiichi and his sisters. They remembered the death of Keiichi parents when he was still a baby, when a space station they'd been on had exploded.

"They continue to float in space somewhere... But I do not want you to take pity on me. That is why I decided to become a member of your team." Added Sen.

"You know, it's not so easy," Keiichi said gently, although he had no intention to comply with this request, at least not for another ten years.

"I do not know who my parents, I am in an orphanage that takes care of me."

"Then why were you alone in the Presidency buildings? " Skuld asked.

"Today is the day of the field trip and we are visiting. I got a little separated from the group because I was bored. I never thought to meet you there. What luck."

This declaration called out to Keiichi and his sisters. They remembered the death of Keiichi parents when he was still a baby, when a Space Station they'd been on had exploded.

"We are leaving the solar system and entering hyperspace." Skuld said, interrupting everyone's thoughts, her electronic senses fixed on the controls of the ship.

Two extraordinary scientific discoveries allowed this fantastic journey. One of them was the hyperspace wheel. Within seconds, the "Space Goddess" had traveled space-time and crossed 1,500 lightyears . Deneph was already in sight.

The second invention that allowed space travel was the ground controller. Indeed, the planets of the universe were not as habitable as Earth.

Very few were actually inhabitable, with human adaptation to living conditions so extreme that it would normally be impossible without genetic modifications or cybernetic implants.

With the ore 'gravium' used as the controller, men could move onto any planet, regardless of its gravity…within limits of course. A controller could not allow a human to move to the surface of a black hole, for example.

Skuld then began to explain to Sen a few of the secrets in the function of The "Space Goddess".

"First thing, the high quality of this ship is its extraordinary mobility." She said proudly.

It actuates a few commands, and the ship began to turn in all directions with the irregularity and the ease of a fly.

"It might be better to stop now, the boy will get sick otherwise." Urd said.

"No, it's fine," Sen replied, trying hard not to look weak.

"All right, then turn to cubic flight." Skuld said.

However, they did not have time, because at that moment, a ray of red light passed near (a few thousand kilometers) the "Space Goddess". Immediately the sensor vessel and Skuld's electronic brain analyzed the data sensor. A moment later, and the ship switched into a random flight pattern for protection.

"We are under attack, Captain," declared the girl robot.

"They really are not that accurate." Megumi remarked.

"Emergency Camouflage. Sen, sit back," said Keiichi.

The emergency camouflage was a stealth system built into the "Space Goddess". In space, there are such huge distances between ships it is difficult to precisely follow a moving spaceship. This is why very precise sensors are needed. Camouflaging the "Space Goddess" did not make it invisible, but provided a set of processes implemented to conceal and alter the various energy emissions, such as its engines, to ensure enemy sensors would be unable to pinpoint the exact location of the vessel and thus fire on it.

However, the "Space Goddess" was far more advanced than any other ship. This was because the greatest mind of humanity, Megumi Morisato, and the best engineer robot, Skuld, had constructed and constantly reinvented the ship together.

"Prepare the Canon Proton and aim their flight stabilizer." Keiichi ordered.

Proton weapons, pistols essentially , were in common use in the galaxy. They were easy to produce for those with the necessary technology and their strength was adjustable. A concentrated proton beam could pierce almost any known shielding, while a diffuse beam could hit a man with the strength of a small vehicle. This allowed to knock or break the bones of someone without killing him. It was this "frequency paralyzing " which made the interesting weapon for the agents of the Galactic Patrol .

"Protons Cannon ready." Skuld said.

"Established target data." Urd added.

"FIRE."

The proton cannon fired and destroyed the flight stabilizers of the enemy ship. From there, the combatant vessel lost control of its direction.

"What is the strongest gravity field in this area?" Asked Keiichi.

"It seems that it is this asteroid," Megumi replied by pointing a light beam with a strange rock clusters appearing on the screen.

"That's a strange asteroid," Said Sen.

"Yes, it is satellite 9. Scientist think that this is actually a piece of Deneph which was separated from it a very long time," explained Keiichi before adding "Skuld, grab one of the men. Surely these men must work for the 'Emperor'. We should be able to get information from them."

"This is suspicious," Urd muttered aloud, "according to the sensors it's a small asteroid but with a gigantic mass. It even has a breathable atmosphere."

After landing, the crew of the captain left the ship, leaving Sen inside for his protection.

The crew approached the enemy ship.

"Skuld, your turn," said Keiichi.

"Okay."

Skuld then used a laser proton located in one of her fingers to cut a crack in the vessel and then opened the breach thus formed with her enormous strength.

The captain and his sisters then entered. Immediately enemy combatants began firing at them.

Skuld, fully armored, had nothing to fear, and neither did Megumi. Urd could count on her prodigious reflexes and flexibility while Keiichi was used to such things. He knew how to move in various blind spots when he was under fire from the enemy. Without being able to dodge the laser shots, his experience and his training were his best protection.

They returned fire.

The enemy was not difficult to neutralize; they were not seasoned mercenaries or military professionals, but rather hired killers who had a habit of executing contracts on defenseless targets who were not aware of the danger.

It was very simple. Skuld housed in his body a lot off small bombs. It had all kinds, anesthetic gas, blinding flash, electromagnetic pulse, the illuminating etc ... . Of course, the chemicals and the mechanisms used, manufactured by Skuld, were of much better quality than their distant "ancestors" of the 20th century. Onboard camera, heat detector, radiation, zoom large display, integrated optical camouflage system, silent, and even a limited form of artificial intelligence... To keep it all in mechanisms under 40 grams and size a nuts, fell technological miracle, even in this period. For fun, Skuld gave her bombs the shape of the Banpei head.

The method " Indiscriminate Attack Mode " she then employed (that is to say a massive bombardment of the enemy) was usually sufficient.

One of the bandits however, slipped out before Keiichi and his sisters arrived.

Sen had remained in the ship, but at the entrance he had opened himself from the inside, to see in the distance what was happening. The man, whose name was unknown, saw the opportunity to take a hostage, one that overshadowed his original plan was to hide near the ship and shoot down its targets by surprise when they come back, too confident of victory .

Catching the child by the neck before he had time to react was not difficult.

"Captain! Get out of there. I have the boy in hostage If you want to save his life, I order you to drop your weapons and surrender.".

Sen said nothing, completely terrified.

It was not Keiichi's first time faced with a hostage. He was perfectly capable of handling this situation with minimal risk. Normally he would have tried to negotiate with the killer, but the circumstances showed that all negotiations would be a waste of time and would simply place Sen at risk. Better to act fast while the man believed he held the advantage. The Captain stepped forward, throwing his Proton gun on the ground.

"Who are you? Why this attack ? " He asked .

"My name is Etsuchi. I am hire by the Space Emperor."

"By the way, I wonder what he's like, this Emperor."

"No idea, no one has seen his face, he always wears a mask." Said Etsuchi.

"Oh that's very interesting. Do I get to talk to him?"

"You must go to him dwelling, deep in the jungle. I promised I would take you there, DEAD OF COURSE!" Replied Etsuchi, readying to fire.

Taking advantage of the conversation, Keiichi had cleverly modify the severity of the mass controller on his belt to become much lighter and made a prodigious leap towards his opponent who did not have time to shoot (which would have been useless, Skuld stood quietly with Etsuchi in her sights, and her robotic 'reflexes' were much faster than the killer's finger, however Etsuchi would probably die and it was better to let his brother capture him alive).

Once Keiichi was close to Etsuchi, it was not difficult to put down. Not only was Keiichi trained in unarmed combat, but with the aid of Skuld and Urd, neutralizing Etsuchi was simple. Quickly he was disarmed, leaving no hostages in his wake.

When the bandit was out of harm's way, the captain and his crew returned to the ship and devised a plan to capture the Emperor.

It was Urd's turn to be useful. She sat before a mirror and began to use her abilities.

Skuld was a robot developed by Professor Megumi and the parents of Captain Keiichi. Urd was a form of artificial life too, but biological. Besides flexibility and a total immunity to disease, she had an extremely adaptable body. No need to breathe, she could feed on almost every conceivable substances, provided it contained an energy value. She could, for example, absorb bacteria from the air through her skin and feed off it for nourishment. However she had a strong preference for alcohol, which brought her the necessary energy and a personal pleasure.

The original biological matrix of Urd came from Keiichi parents. Of course, her DNA, the structure of the body as a whole, had suffered from the beginning any kind of change that made that she could in no way be considered human, even if she had the appearance. However, because of her origin, she could still be seen as the sister of Keiichi and that's how they saw themselves, and they loved each other since birth; though their DNA was different they still had the same parents.

Although more organic and at a lower intelligence than Skuld, her brain had the capacity for analysis, her range of perception of the surrounding environment better than anyone's. Her senses were extremely precise and she had a photogenic memory.

However, her most amazing feat was the ability to completely change her morphology. She could look at any individual or creature and replicate their size and shape. She could change the color of her skin, eyes, and tone of voice. She could mimic, albeit imperfectly, the DNA structure of another individual.

This power had limits, however. Urd could turn into many forms but not everything. It would have been impossible, for example, to turn into a small rodent, or to acquire a pair of wings that would have allowed her to fly. She could not imitate the chemicals of other species such as snake venom. She could not change her organs to develop more advanced capacity, such as the ability of certain aliens to emit ultrasound like bats. Finally, though her bones were soft, they were still solid. She could contract them, fold them, or bend them a little, however she always retained her mass regardless of her appearance.

Another gift Urd possessed was her ability to send small electric shocks through physical contact. Not enough to kill or stun, but sufficient enough to prevent someone from touching her if she did not wish it.

Their parents had given her these special gifts, like Skuld had inherited the genius scientific and strength, it was out of love. They wanted Urd to be whatever she chose to be: blonde, brunette, human, extra terrestrial, large, small, with any skin color of choice. And their "children" could protect themselves. The Urd kiss was mother's idea, an overly-romantic idealist who wanted the kiss of her daughter to be the most wonderful of all. Their parents never envisaged that Urd and Skuld would use their gifts as part of a life of adventure, but only in a "normal" life, like "normal" people.

The transformation generally took less than one minute. In this case, it was in order to mimic Etsuchi, to attract the Emperor into a trap.

"Watch, the color of her eyes will change and her hair and facial structure will completely transform." Skuld explained as Sen watched on in awe.

Moments later, when she had finished her transformation, Urd turned to Sen with the appearance of the bandit.

"So what do you say to my new face? Haha..." she said with a slight laugh.

"Impressive. If I had not seen it with my eyes, and if you weren't wearing different clothes, I would have sworn Etsuchi had just escaped."

One last notable gift from her "parents" was her kiss. Urd had in her throat a gland which secreted two particular chemicals.

The first raised the dopamine levels of the brain, making the kiss particularly pleasant and mesmerizing. In high doses it could even knock out the person. More than once Urd had used that talent to knock someone out, hide his body and take his place, or to give her lovers an unforgettable evening with the best kiss of their lives.

The second substance acted as a truth serum. There were many who saw Urd as their confident after a 'night of passion', believing what they confessed was of their own free will.

The shapeshifter mostly used these abilities for fun, however, when asked of it by her 'little brother', she used the abilities to extract information from their enemies. The two Substances also shared a certain chemical 'mimicry' and could be adapted to affect almost any extra-terrestrial race. Urd had other powers conferred by her unique biology, such as the ability to hibernate and heal much faster than humans.

Shortly after Keiichi and Urd entered the place indicated by Etsuchi, where they waited for the Emperor to appear. Several hours had passed already, and the man still had not appeared. It was a small hut in a forest in the back of a slum in the northern part of Deneph.

"If the Space Emperor shows, you block the door," said Keiichi.

"Understood " Urd replied.

The boy lay on the table, pretending to be dead.

The hours passed with no sign of the "Emperor". When suddenly Urd heard footsteps behind her.

"Space Emperor? When did you arrive?" Urd/Etsuchi asked, genuinely surprised by the discreet arrival of the individual.

The Space Emperor was wrapped in a grotesque and baggy black suit. A helmet hid his head, with a strange, flexible ore narrowing into a tip on each side of his face. Two yellow holes served as the helmet's eye guard, the orbs within hidden from sight. A dark green cloak covered him and a Proton pistol rested in his belt. His true appearance was completely hidden by the baggy suit. It was impossible to tell if he was Human or Denephean.

"I see you have respected your promise," he said in a robotic voice.

"Yes of course, but the two others died while fighting." Urd / Etsuchi replied.

"I really do not see that as surprising.. So you've managed to eliminate Captain Keiichi." He said, advancing to inspect the "corpse".

It was at this time that Keiichi rolled onto his back and leapt to his feet. "I'm still alive! Tell me, are you heartbroken, "Majesty"!?"

"What? How can this be?!" Stammered the Emperor.

Keiichi did not give him time to recover…. and passed through as if the Emperor was an illusion.

Urd / Etsuchi tried in turn but without success. The Emperor seemed untouchable.

"Haha. I understand. Even Etsuchi was not able to defeat you ... But one day I will have time to take care of you, and then you will have no chance." Said the ghostly being before passing through a wall.

"This is not possible. Is he a ghost or something?!" Said Urd, completely overwhelmed after the phenomenon.

"A ghost can not speak or be heard. He is as real as you or me….. " Keiichi retorted.

A few minutes later, The Emperor then went towards "Space Goddess" and climbed aboard.

"THE SPACE EMPEROR!" Cried Etsuchi.

"But ... How did he get pass the Entry Lock?!" Megumi said.

Gradually but inexorably, the individual passed yet indeed through the wall.

"QUICK! QUICK! Deliver us, I'M BEGGING YOU!" Implored Etsuchi.

Without waiting for an answer, Skuld threw herself on the Emperor, and passed through him like that Urd and Keiichi.

Sen tried in turn to launch his yoyo at the head of the apparition, also in vain.

Meanwhile, Keiichi and Urd returned hastily to their vessel, but on the way they were stopped. A crowd of people with green skin stood between them and the ship.

"What is going on?" Urd wondered.

"These are the original inhabitants of Deneph. What are they doing here?" his brother replied.

"That noise! Gunfire in the ship!" Keiichi immediately worried.

In the ship, the Emperor had already killed two of his henchmen, but had not hurt Skuld, Megumi or Sen, nor even Mini Banpei and Sigel, the two mascots of the ship. Instead he was preparing to shoot Etsuchi.

"MERCY! DELIVER ME AND I'LL DO AS YOU ASK!" He cried.

The Emperor showed no pity, mercilessly shooting Etsuchi in face.

"Penalty for breach of contract." He said.

Keiichi then entered his ship.

"Too late Captain. The execution is over," said the man dressed in black.

"I will never forgive you for having defiled this vessel with a passenger's blood." Said Keiichi, filled with anger and disgust.

"If you really trying to put you in my path, next time it will be you I annihilate." The Emperor said, again passing through the wall.

Keiichi looked out the Space Goddess and saw the man go, followed by the men with green skin.

What could he do other than to let them go? Attack the whole horde with his team? He was not that kind of person and anyway, it would have been suicide. Moreover they could not touch his enemy, only let him go. In fact, he was lucky that the man has just executed his henchmen and let him and his crew live. Strange. VERY strange behavior.

"Do the people of Deneph obey this Emperor?!" He asked.

"I have a feeling." Megumi replied.

"It's still annoying, There's nothing we can do," remarked Skuld.

"Have a little patience. The struggle is just starting, and I think we'll have to fight against this guy as we have never fought before." Keiichi mused, his mind racing to find a flaw in the apparent invulnerability of his enemy.

Captain Keiichi had no idea how right he was. The fight was going to be ruthless.


	2. Prison in the Sea of Fire

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of "Nena Camadera" and "Hotspot the 626th", I therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.  
-

 **02) Prison in the Sea of Fire**

"Why didn't he kill us? He could have killed us easily." Skuld said aloud.

"She's right. This guy did not spare us by arrogance or through the kindness of his heart." Urd said.

After several hours of thinking, Keiichi reached a deduction.

"This is a modification of the oscillatory motion of atoms." he declared.

"Bravo. By modifying the oscillation of the atoms that make up a material, he can pass through objects. I think this is the only possible explanation. I do not see any others." Professor Megumi nodded.

"That explains why we're still alive. If he had tried to kill us, we would have been forced to defend ourselves and a weakness might have been discovered, "said Keiichi.

"I don't understand. Can you explain to me how a man can pass through a wall?" Sen asked Urd.

Before she had a chance to respond, Skuld intervened. "For this kind of problem you can address me." She explained, "I have an electronic brain; therefore, I can answer everything.

"Now imagine an atom is a small universe. At its center is one nucleus surrounded by electrons. Now suppose this nucleus is the size of a ball and the ball is in the middle of a baseball stadium with electrons, acting as players, running around the nucleus. It leaves a lot of empty space on the ground. Enough for another atom and another team to be in the stadium as well. The wall is composed with a lot of atoms, like the body of the Emperor. So it is a lot of "stadium", enough for the human body can pass through the wall. Simple as that. So, in the future, when you have a difficult question, don't tire yourself out asking the gumdrop over there." Skuld said, a robotic mini Banpei on her shoulder nodding in agreement.

"Did you just call me a gumdrop, Tincan?" Urd asked angrily, while a mini Sigel blob perched on her shoulder cast a dark look at Banpei.

"Did I hear right? You said Tincan?"

"I could have said old trash."

"And degenerated elastic to you."

"Old rotten scrap heap"

"Oh no, they're fighting." Sighed Sen.

The next day, as the sun rose over Deneph, the boy found himself watching the magma eruptions that covered a large area of the surrounding landscape.

"Look, it's like the sea is on fire."

"But that's just it, my little Sen. It is a sea that is perpetually on fire." Explained Skuld.

Meanwhile, Urd had changed her appearance to mimic the green people.

"This is perfect. The Denepheans will think you are a compatriot." said Keiichi.

Her ability to disguise herself was Urd's main infiltraition asset, but that was not all.

Indeed, assuming the appearance of a Denephean was not enough. She needed to study the people's history, their customs, how they dress, the ways they communicate, facial expressions, how to walk, move, behave etc...She had studied the "Space Goddess" database and had developed her Denephean "character" throughout the night. With her capacity for mimicry, which comprised of both her ability to adapt her body language and thought patterns as well as her physical appearance, Urd was ready for the infiltraition.

"I hope it will be worth it." Urd grumbled. "The Denepheans are not to my taste. They don't even drink alcohol." The woman sighed.

"If you do a good job, I promise you I'll get you a bottle of whatever you want." Her brother compromised, stroking her head comfortingly.

"Be careful making those kinds of promises, I could get used to them".

The Denepheans, like most intelligent species of the galaxy looked Human (although one could say Humans resembled Denepheans). The only notable differences were their greenish skin, yellow eyes and elongated ears. They were the first alien race encountered by Humans since they had begun to explore the space.

In the 21st century, it was estimated that the probability of aliens, if they existed, resembling Humans, was virtually nil. Evolution was a long and complex phenomenon, after all, which led to very different results.

This theory, although seemingly reasonable, did not change the fact that: most intelligent races of the galaxy had two arms, two legs, a nose, a mouth, two eyes, ears... Of course, there are still some differences. Number of fingers, genitals, skin thickness, shell, color, shape of the skull, teeth etc...

It was a generality, not a requirement. The giant spiders on the planet Ti for example, which resembled large terrestrial tarantulas, had absolutely nothing in common with humans. They were fully arachnoid. Despite their frightening appearance to Humans, they were known for their extremely polite and cheerful attitude. Innocent arboreal creatures feeding exclusively on fruits, though they had mastered space travel.

Other examples could be mentioned, such as crawling crystal Voleem or the people of Rigel which Sigel was a representative. Protoplasmic lifeforms whose size and intelligence grew slowly but steadily with time.

"I still have to stay here for the moment." sighed Skuld.

"Do not worry, the Space Emperor will soon appear." Said Sen.

oOo

Keiichi and Urd arrived in town shortly thereafter.

"I think it is better to part now. I will first go to Eiri, the planetary governor," said the Captain.

Keiichi and the "Strip" parted quietly in a corner.

Jovopolis, the human capital of Deneph, looked like a futuristic version of the old Wild West of Earth. The colonists had adopted a lifestyle similar to what it resembled, however with a far superior technology. The original inhabitants, the Denepheans, whose skin was green, also lived here but they were comparable to Mexicans of the former Far-west: poor, treated like second-class citizens by a lot of people. They wandered about aimlessly, without any sense of purpose or direction.

While on his way to the governor, Captain Keiichi saw a man staggering out of a bar. At first he just thought that the man was drunk, but he quickly changed his mind.

"De-evolution." He muttered.

Indeed, the bestial face of the man left no room for doubt about his mental state. He had been able to control himself so far but the species devolution phenomenon was surpassing his will, and the doubled, crazy eyes of blind aggression had just seized him brutally.

Passerbys fled in terror. All except a little boy who stumbled while the monster, seized with a primal rage, approached the fallen youth. Immediately Keiichi rushed to save the child, only for another to intervene.

A woman with brown hair dressed in an orange jumpsuit was already confronting the monster. With a skillful judo hold she brought the creature down, knocking him out in the process.

A security officer arrived on scene, and immediately the woman took charge. "Quickly, call a Helicare for transport. We cannot simply leave him here; he must be brought to Dr. Bright." She instructed.

Soon after, a flying vehicle abbreviated with the Red Cross carried the prehistoric man away.

oOo

Meanwhile, Urd had found a Denephean sitting on the ground near the bar's exit. Seeing a potential target, she first tried to exercise her natural charm on the individual. "Beautiful day isn't it?"

The Denephean did not answer, merely staring off into space.

"Well, if they're all as talkative as him..." Urd sighed.

oOo

The governor's mansion was nestled in a huge park of teeming ferns trees and shrubs. It was a large rectangular structure, built with gleaming metal like the rest of the city of Humans, its large and numerous windows all illuminated.

Keiichi silently crossed the dark orchard located at the entrance. Bright rays of the three moons brushed the leaves of trees and gigantic, determined ferns gently brushed his face. The scent of flowers was almost overwhelming it was so powerful. High in the sky hovered moon bats, strange and iridescent winged Denepheans cratures which only manifested when one or more moons appeared in the sky.

He approached stealthily from a wing of the large terrace. Quietly, Captain Keiichi moved towards an open window that let out the white and pale light of a powerful uranite bulb. He scrupulously observed inside the office and immediately recognized the Governor of the Human colony, according to the President's description. She was deep in conversation with the woman from earlier.

"No, I'm sorry but you can not. Besides Dr. Bright needs rest. It doesn't surprise me, given the fact that this hospital was a former prison." The woman said.

"Oh yes. I know, but unfortunately we lack the financial means to build a proper hospital." replied the governor. The woman in question, Eiri was a pretty young woman with long black hair. She closely resembled Sayoko, except for a pair of glasses that rested on her nose.

It should be noted that medicine has made great progress and today glasses no longer held the same function as on Earth in the 21st century. They were not used to correct problems of sight, but to display information on the glass in the manner of a computer terminal.

In this age of space exploration, talented young people could quickly find themselves in important positions, even if they lacked experience, whereas a few centuries earlier, such accomplishments would have required a whole working life. Thus young women not even 30 years old could become president of Earth, or a planetary governor. Captain Keiichi was a prime example.

"It is no more a question of money than of Human dignitiy. We cannot continue as we are now. We must discover the cause of this disease as soon as possible."

"I'll take care of it." Keiichi intervened.

"Who are you?" Eiri gaped "How did you get in here?".

Keiichi then showed his letters of accreditation.

"Captain Keiichi!" Exclaimed the woman in the orange suit.

Meanwhile, Urd was trying an alternate method of approach with the Denepheans.

She had wandered out of a bar in a faux rush, deliberately knocking into a sinister-looking individual.

The man, a real "desperado" of the Wild West, was delighted to have the opportunity to exercise his predjudice on his haphazard victim with what would have been a painful barfight, to anyone observing.

After allowing herself to be "pummeled" and offering very little resistance (thanks to her physiology as a shapeshifter, Urd was almost immune to punches with human strenght), the woman laid still a few minutes, waiting and watching as she nursed her apparent "injuries".

Her plan worked. A Denephean, who'd watched the scene, approached to offer some assistance.

"Do not be afraid. I'm Reemook and I work under the Space Emperor," he said softly.

"I beg you, take me with you. I can not stay here alone." Urd moaned. "The Humans are arrogant, and stupid. I swear at times I want really to strangle them." The woman relied on her natural charismatic abilities to gain an opening with the native, smiling inwardly when Reemook nodded in agreement.

"Then come with me."

In the governor's office, several people were gathered in the presence of Captain Keiichi.

"Allow me to make some introductions. Mister Brewer and Cannig are old friends of mine, and Director and Deputy Director of the company Brewer & Co which is the largest element manufacturing factory on the planet." Explained the governor.

Brewer was a man of medium height and average build. An aging man who was steadily losing what gray hair he had left, his bald head was surrounded by a ring of thinning ring of short, silver hair that matched his mustache.

Meanwhile Cannig was a red-haired man with curly hair, approaching fifty. His face was severe, and the shape of his mouth gave the impression that he was in a bad mood.

"And finally, Miss Valerie Halburn, my assistant and deputy governor," concludes Eiri.

Valerie Halburn was the only woman among the three. She was about the same age as Keiichi. There was nothing particular to say otherwise, except she was rather pretty, despite something indefinable, and seductive at the same time on her face.

"Excuse me Miss, but you really seem to me very young to occupy such a high position" asked the Captain.

Halburn took a deep breath before answering. "I would point out that you are yourself very young, Captain," the woman replied irritably, "for having accomplished that entire rumor tells you accomplished."

"Yes, Miss Halburn is a somewhat special case. She received the best marks in management and political science from the Deneph Academy, which allowed her to directly obtain this position for a period of three years renewable." Explained Eiri.

After the presentations, the governor continued her explanations.

"The first victims of the devolution worked for the company of Mister Brewer and Cannig."

"The Deneph men also work for us, but oddly this disease seems to only affect Humans." Declared Director Brewer.

"50% of our employees are apes-men as of today. 10% have regressed to the stage of rat-men" added Deputy Director Cannig.

"We are overwhelmed by the number of patients. The cells of the central prison were converted into a hospital room." Finished the nameless young woman in the orange outfit.

"The first cases were radium prospectors," continued Eiri. "They came out of the jungle already transformed into ape-like creatures. Since then, it's gotten to the point where people are being reported daily. Most cases are from the factory, but reports are steadily growing from Jovopolis and by others elsewhere." told Eiri.

"We are at a completely lost on the causes of this terrible disease," said her assistant, in a desperate tone.

"As for this de-evolution situation, it is not a disease, but a deliberate phenomenon. I'll get the medical cause with Professor Megumi" reassured Captain Keiichi.

"What? Megumi? The famous Professor Megumi? The scholar?" Asked Cannig.

"I do not understand. I was told she was only a brain now." Said Director Brewer.

"Indeed, but she is a well-respected member of my team. Although, Governor, I have a question for you about my trip. I'm guessing our president warned you I was coming on Deneph. Who else was told?" Asked Keiichi.

"Well... ".

"Probably Miss Halburn who told Mr. Brewer and Mr. Cannig?"

"Of course."

"Did you tell anyone else?"

"We all knew it was imperative to keep it secret." Halburn intervened.

"Perfect. Now I must visit the hospital center. Could someone take me there?"

"We've converted our colonial prison into an emergency hospital for security reasons with the de-evolution phenomenon. Only the prison could accommodate the victims of this disease." explained the governor.

"I will gladly show you, Captain Keiichi." Replied the woman in the orange suit.

"Thank you very much, but I realize that we have not been introduced, Miss…?"

"Landor. Belldandy Landor, but my friends call me Bell" said the woman with chestnut hair.

"I'd like a report on the events that have occurred since my arrival. Goodbye." With a nod the Captain and Belldandy departed the office.

oOo

"So you think one of them could be the "Space Emperor" you mentioned?"

"Yes. Or at least that one of them works for him. Anyway, the Emperor was warned of my arrival and only those people knew. Which means it must be one of them; however, which one?" Keiichi explained.

"Then why not get them to arrest and submit them to questioning?" Asked Bell, "It would be justified under the circumstances."

"I cannot simply ask to arrest the planetary governor, vice governor, the director of the largest production facility in the planet and his deputy on simple presumptions. Without even addressing the moral aspect, I can not imagine the political scandal that would follow. Finally, perhaps none of them are the Emperor but instead one of his agents. This would diminish the valut of their capture and only increase problems down the road. On top of that, there is still the chance that none of them are associated with the Emperor, and that the man instead has a sophisticated spy machine somewhere from which he learned of my arrival." Explained Keiichi.

"I doubt any of those people are traitors." Belldandy sighed.

"Anything is possible, unfortunately."

"I know that anything is possible. The proof in that is your existence. You're our role model, our hope. For us Humans, you are the embodiment of courage, wisdom, power…" The woman stated dreamily.

"Oh, miss , all these compliments , it's too much of an honor . A little more and you will make me an angel. I can not accept compliments as disproportionate . " replied Keiichi who had heard worse. At least Belldandy seemed sincere , maybe a little naive in his praise . 

"You represent a lot of more than that. You are an example for all Humans."

"That's kind of you, Miss, but I think you're exaggerating."

"Oh, I would prefer you to call me Bell." Belldandy replied, blushing.

"With pleasure. Bell."

Chemistry began to blossom between Captain Keiichi and Officer Belldandy.

"She looks like my mother when she was her age," thought the boy.

Flashback…

It was a long time ago. A young man had fallen in love with a woman who'd resembled Belldandy. Her name was Takano and his was Keima. They married and gone to work on a space station orbiting the moon.

There, they adopted Megumi, a brilliant orphan with an unparalleled genius.

The three of them managed to develop a robot of incomparable technological perfection. The robot's intellect was created through a revolutionary process which allowed it to copy the electrochemical structure of a human brain on an improved Informatic support with a force equivalent of thirty men. As the robot resembled a young woman, the couple considered her as their second child. They named the robot "Skuld".

They then created a synthetic life based on their DNA, they named Urd, which benefited from the latest advances in genetics and molecular biology and they regarded her too as their own daughter. Urd was therefore little sister Skuld, although she appeared older, since her body was that of an adult.

And of course, they also bore a child normally, whom they named Keiichi

Unfortunately, this peaceful life ended tragically.

-  
A terrible accident occurred on the station, forcing it to crash on the moon's surface. Keima was killed and Takano and Megumi seriously injured.  
With the help of Urd and Skuld especially, Megumi was in time to transplant her brain into a small, ultra-sophisticated flying vehicle developed to help the disabled. Once little more than a floating brain with tiny mechanical arms and lasers, Megumi was now regarded as a kind of immortal spirit, having transcended the pleasures of the flesh and completely devoted herself to scientific research.  
Takano alas, was not so lucky. Still pregnant with Keiichi at the time, she had just given birth to him before forcing her extended family into a promise to care for him with her last breath.

"We will take care of Keiichi, and protect him!" cried the brain.

"Do not take him on Earth," she whispered. "People there would take him from you. They would say that it is wrong to allow a human child to be raised by a brain, a robot and a genetically altered life form. Keep him here on the moon, until he becomes a man."

"We will," promised Megumi. "Skuld, Urd and I will raise him here safely."

The woman's hands rose slightly and touched the cheek of the crying child. In her dying eyes appeared a mournful expression of loss.

"I wish to see little Keiichi became a man," she whispered, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "A man the likes of which the Cosmos has never seen before."

And so, Takano Morisato died. Her son was abandoned in the solitude of the lunar laboratory in the company of a brain, a robot and a polymorphous woman.

Megumi Morisato, Skuld and Urd kept their promises in the years that followed. They raised their little brother Keiichi and his three inhuman guardians gave the growing child an education the likes of which no man had ever received before.

The brain, with its unrivaled scientific knowledge, supervised the boy's education. It was the brain which instructed Keiichi Morisato in each scientific discipline, making him a versatile scientist with extensive knowledge in astrophysics, biology, chemistry and physics.

The robot instilled in the boy any technical know-how and practical knowledge. How to do more with less.

The shapeshifter took charge of physical education, teaching the child to master all kinds of martial arts, and instructing him in exercises meant to develop flexibility and a strong sense of balance. She also showed him everything a parent would have shown her child in terms of experience of youth. Cycling in low gravity, laughing at a good joke, enjoying a picnic, etc...

The child was surrounded with a family dedicated to providing as normal a childhood as possible for the boy. Christmas and holidays were spnet meeting friends his own age, with Urd passing for his mother to avoid suspicion.

The three took turns reading to him beautiful stories at night, bathing him etc. They were his guardians, but they were primarily his FAMILY and his SISTERS. Megumi was the adopted daughter of Keima and Takano, Skuld had inherited their mind, and Urd came from their flesh and blood.

The strangest family in the galaxy, but a happy one none the less.

And when he was older, Keiichi began secret trips through the solar system, to start, and then to nearby stars and then throughout the galaxy in the extraordinary little ship that Megumi, Skuld and Keiichi himself had designed and built. The familly secretly visited hundreds of worlds and so he came to know not only the Earth colonies of each planet, but also many unexplored planets, both wild and desolate. And he visited satellites and asteroids on which no other man had ever ventured before.

As it was Keiichi who decided the destinations most of the time, his sisters slowly fell into the habit of calling him "Captain" rather than "Little Brother", "Bro" or other sibling nicknames. For them, it was a small emotional word rather than actual title. Keiichi was not really a graded "Captain" in the military sense of the term.

The boy also learned to piloting smaller vessels with Urd and Skuld. Skuld taught him various driving methods, while Urd introduced him to the more dangerous sport of racing in meteorite fields. One of his sister's favorite games that Keiichi quickly gained a passion for.

There too was Mini Banpei, a small robot less sophisticated than Skuld, who was constantly at the girl's side, and Sigel, a protoplasmic life from Rigel, who was Urd's adoptive daughter.

Then, when the time came for him to decide what to do with his life, Megumi spoke up. "We have nothing to teach you now. It is time for you to make a decision that we cannot make for you. You can lead a quiet life, like everyone else. Or put all your talents in the service of humanity. It's up to you."

"If I had an ordinary family, growing up on Earth or on another, I would surely choose to live an ordinary life. Right now I'd probably be a student working on his small spaceship as a hobby. I would hopefully have a girlfriend and or someone pretty and nice that would stay with me forever. I would surely participate in "Cosmolem Racing," and I'd be happy as well. I've been thinking and I very seriously considered it. But you are not an ordinary family, and I have not led an ordinary childhood. You showed me an amazing life and made me an extraordinary man. I will devote myself to exploring space, science and many other things, and above all, I will do everything in my power to help others, so they can carry, like me, the life they choose to live."

Thus Captain Keiichi was born.

"CHIHIRO?!" Exclaimed the boy.

"Sorry?" Belldandy asked.

"I seem to have heard the voice of one of my old friends. She's in charge of interplanetary patrols."

"Oh yes. You mean Chihiro Fujimi."

Recognizing the voice, Keiichi and Belldandy walked into a bar.

"You remember me, I suppose, eh Solitary?" Asked a woman older than Keiichi by of some years, to an individual seated at the bar.

The individual in question was the sinister man who had brutalized Urd earlier that day. "How could I forget you? Because of you I spent 5 years in prison." The man grumbled.

"If you have such a good memory, then you still remember that you are not welcome on this planet for your past actions. You are forbidden from entering this part of the galaxy for another three years." Said Chihiro. She offered the man a drink before adding in a colder tone, "You end at this glass and then you take the next rocket off this planet."

The man drank a few sips from the glass that Chihiro gave him...then jumped on the bar table and drew his pistols, ready to shoot the Colonel.

However, he does not have time to shoot, as Keiichi shot the weapon out of the aggressor's hand.

"Captain Keiichi? Here?" The man took a puff of his cigarette casually, hiding the deadly panic beneath.

Keiichi fired twice on the cigarette, each shot shortening its length as the ray drew closer and closer to the individual's face. "Did you not understand what the Colonel just said?" Keiichi asked, voice polite but firm. "You're leaving the planet right now".

"Okay, okay." Said the man, leaving the bar accompanied by two sidekicks.

"I am very happy to see you Keiichi, but you know, I could disarm him myself. It would not be the first time." Chihiro said, shaking the hand of her longtime friend.

"I do not doubt it, but I prefer not to take any chances."

"Sure, but what are you doing on this planet? Were you called here?"

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a cry from outside. The man, whom Chihiro had called "Solitary", already fallen to ill luck after running into Chihiro and Captain Keiichi, was struck by an even worse fate upon leaving the bar. Immediately he began exhibiting symptoms of de-evolution, as those around him watched on in horror.

Urd and Reemook, who also witnessed the scene, began talking.

"The curse of Ancients spreads quickly," Reemook said gravely to Urd.

Urd was surprised. What did he mean by the curse of the Ancients?

She knew, from the multiple reports to aid her cover before beginning her mission, that Denepheans believed in a wonderful and mysterious set of ruins in the middle of the jungle. They'd once been the cities of a Denephean race of demigods known as the Ancients. But what does this legend had to do with the devolution of humanity?

Urd decided to take a small risk. She had to find out what Reemook knew about the Space Emperor, and for this reason she ventured to make a statement (after all she could always "convince" Reemook to speak, by more brutal means, or knock him out and replace him. The methods to cope with the situation were not lacking.)

"Our shadowy guide told us the truth", said Urd seriously looking Reemook.

The round eyes of Denephean expressed surprise.

"So you too, in the villages of the East, have seen and heard the Living Ancient? He appeared to you like us? "(Urd had claimed to be called Zhill and come from a village to the east. Her study of the history of the planet clearly indicated that the many tribes of native Deneph were very secluded).

"The Living Ancient? So that was what the Denepheans called the Space Emperor?" Urd wondered what that name meant.

"Yes, it seems so,", she told Reemook. "He also brought us his message."

That could mean almost anything, thought Urd. Nevertheless, she was stunned to learn that the Space Emperor was called the Living Ancient. Was it possible that their enemy was a Denephean?

"Then you too will be ready to fight when the Living Ancient gives the order?" Reemook questioned.

A Denephean revolt against Humans? Was that the purpose of the gigantic plot of this mysterious Space Emperor? But how such an attack could have an hope of success? Their weapons were very rudimentary. And how this terrifying epidemic disease was she connected to this? Thoughts surged rapidly in the head of the shapeshifter. Yet she did not hesitate to answer Reemook.

"I cannot commit myself to anyone else, but I know I can say that many of us will be ready when the order comes," she said fervently to Reemook.

"Good!" Murmured the Denephean. "And the order will arrive soon. The Curse of the Ancients is growing every day against the Humans, reducing more and more of them into mindless beasts. Soon the Living Ancient will give us the order."

Urd thought quickly and then spoke with the same fervor. "I have to give news of our preparation to the Living Ancient," she told Reemook. "He asked us to keep him informed. But I do not know where to find our powerful guide."

"The Living Ancient will appear tomorrow evening in a place close to my village," told Reemook in a whisper. "In the Place of the Dead."

"I know," Urd lied (she was expert in the field). "But how can I expect to find it when I do not know the area? I've never been as close to the Sea of Fire before."

"You'll have no trouble finding it because we'll take you with us there." Reemook reassured her. "We leave for the north now, and you can come with us. In two nights you will be at the Place of the Dead with us, and you can deliver your message to our leader when he appears."

Urd thanked him immensely. Apparently Reemook had accepted the lone 'Denephean' as a kindred spirit.

"We're leaving now; our mission is accomplished here. Our "Straddle" are waiting in the jungle behind the city. "

Urd accompanied the Denephean through disreputable and noisy roads in the interplanetary colonial city. There they left the metal Jovopolis streets unmolested and crossed the road which joined the large fields of Terrain wheat.

The thoughts of the shapeshifter raced. She had to tell Keiichi what she'd learned and where she was going. But with Reemook so close to her she did not dare use the communicator hidden beneath her skin. The disguised woman and Denephean bolted down streets lit by the remaining two moons in the sky. Soon they reached the edge of the wheat field, and entered the jungle under a clear moon.

At the entrance of the jungle were three Denephean "straddle", so named by their odd frames. The "straddle" were large lizard-like creatures, their elongated bodies borne by four arched legs that allow them to run at incredible speed. Their long reptilian necks ended in snakeheads whose toothless maws which held leather reins by which the rider controlled his mount.

"Fortunately we have three "Straddle" available." Said Reemook to the Denephean who had waited with animals. He then looked to Urd, "Jump, Zhil!"

Urd had never before ridden such a lizard-like creature. Yet the woman, who feared neither man nor god nor demon, jumped into the rudimentary saddle skin without hesitation. The creature turned its head toward her and hissed angrily, its little eyes flashing like red lightning. Urd ignored it, instead looking to the other Denepheans and watching as they kicked their steeds into submission. Quickly she followed suit, and the giant lizard ceased its hissing.

"Now to the north!" Reemook cried in a low, deep voice, and he gave a loud shout.

The next moment, Urd released a cry of joy as the creature exploded forward. What a fantastic ride. Quite the kind of excitement she adored, like an old youthful desire which had finally been fulfilled.

oOo

Sometime later, the "Space Goddess" came to the prison hospital in the center of the sea of fire. It was protected from the molten lava by a force field that could only be opened or closed for vessel transport. The prison was built on a rock amidst the sea of fire. In many ways it was similar to the former Alcatraz prison on Earth, which had been reopened in the last century. Alcatraz was surrounded by a sea of water too cold for a possible escapee to survive for more than a few minutes. On Deneph, the prison was surrounded by a hot, molten lava sea for which a man could survive no more than one second. And even if it was possible to swim in, the nearest edge was located more than 500 kilometers away; an impossible distance to cover. It was a very high security prison.

"It's like being in hell. How was the sea of fire formed?" Asked Sen.

"Millions of years ago, magma erupted in this area for unknown reasons." Answered Skuld.

"This is horrible place to build a hospital." Keiichi noted.

"For a hospital perhaps, but I will point out that for the longest time it was a prison." Megumi retorted.

"Urd should contact us any second now, so be prepared to intervene."

Belldandy and Keiichi went up on the ""Beemerlem", a small ship class "Cosmolem" Keiichi had modified, that was stored in the back of the "Space Goddess" for travel in the atmosphere of planets.

"The next eruption is expected to occur in a few minutes from a point of 15 kilometers south-southwest. Try to act accordingly," explained Belldandy.

"South-southwest, no problem." Replied Skuld.

As they approached the "hospital" Belldandy spoke again. "It is forbidden to open the shield for over one minute, it's too dangerous."

Prison staff opened the screen for 20 seconds to allow the "Beemerlem" to land on the landing pad.

"The degree of de-evolution differs among individuals. The most violent and most dangerous cases are interned in the basement," Bell explained as she and Captain Keiichi exited the vessel, a prison officer guiding them to the victims in question.

oOo

Meanwhile, the operator responsible for opening and closing the prison shield received a very unpleasant visit.

"Who are you?!"

"The Space Emperor." answered the man.

"Why are you here?" asked the agent who was not satisfied with this and began to worry.

"I just fill my share of the contract with the Denepheans" replied the man before shooting the operator.

oOo

"This is absolutely monstrous. It is an abomination. I will find the Space Emperor and I will send him to prison forever." Keiichi said, revolted by his visit before adding. "I need to take one prehistoric man back with me to conduct various examinations with Megumi and Skuld."

"All right, I'll talk to the director," said Bell, opening the door… Or at least, attempting to open it.

The Space Emperor had destroyed several control panels from the hospital control room and now the door to the upper floors was closed while the cells where the violent ape-men resided slid open.

Keiichi and Belldandy were very quickly faced with a horde of ape-men and several rat-men.

oOo

The three ran at a breakneck speed through the jungle, along a dimly lit path through moons. Their speed was disconcerting, yet the movement was so flexible that Urd had no trouble adjusting.

Reemook and the other Denephean encircled her. She therefore had no opportunity to call Captain Keiichi with her communicator, and the shapeshifter was forced to give up the idea until she could find someplace private.

"It's a long trip, but we should be with my people tomorrow night, and you'll be able to join us to go to the Place of the Dead." Said Reemook.

"I look forward to seeing the Living Ancient" Urd replied, realizing she was in fact excited to see the Space Emporer. It was merely that her reasons differed from those of her colleagues.

The dark paths of the jungle, dimly lit by the moons were oppressive and wild. Huge tree ferns spread their massive trunks and varnish on almost three hundred meters high. Large rigid trees were dominated by almost as many bushes. Slender, copper trees whose fiberous bark bore the metal they were named after glowed in the light of moons.

Vine-snakes swung wildly, clinging to large trunks and blindly assaulting the three "straddle" that passed through their territory. Sucking flies darted through the air and fatal brain ticks were visible on the leaves. Somewhere in the jungle a bird-mermaid charmed its prey by a strange, whistling song. Occasionally they caught glimpses of octopus trees fluttering in the foliage, their flesh blending with the foliage and as silent as ghosts.

Urd enjoyed that nocturnal and wild ride through the Denephean jungle. Unlike many others, the shapeshifter was at ease in the alien surroundings, having long ago allowed herself to take things as they came into her life. This was no exception, and one she could appreciate all the same with the vast amount of foreign activity that surrounded her.

She had fought through the red and blinding sand storms in the deserts of Mars. She'd swam in poisoned Acturians swamps and fallen into the gigantic abyssal mountains of Vorean. She'd even crested the dangerous floes on Sigoon, and so rarely did she question the near future.

But now the need to report to Captain Keiichi weighed heavily on her conscience. Several hours of ceaseless cavalcade had passed without an opportunity to use her communicator. Always one of the two Denepheans was at her side.

Finally, Reemook tugged on his reins and as the "Straddle" gently slowed, the others did the same. "We will stop here for the night to eat allow the straddles to rest. We will leave at dawn tomorrow." Reemook announced.

They came down from the saddle, and the three lizard like-creatures stretched out on the soft black soil of the small clearing.

"I'll get us something to eat," said Reemook as he plunged into the jungle.

The other Denephean moved to check the straps on their mounts. Seeing her chance, Urd moved a distance away from the Denphean and crouched down, looking as they she was relaxing in the clearing. She then went to her communicator, which she'd disguised as a simple watch.

She touched the call buttons anxiously. She was not sure that the little instrument, originally intended for short distances, could reach Jovopolis. Tense, she waited for the response signal.

There was no answer. Urd felt a ball of despair swell in her chest, an almost unknown feeling given her determined and fierce nature. Again she pushed the button, persistently searching for a response.

Finally, after several failed attempts to reached Keiichi a weak response signal arose from the small instrument. Her call signal had been received.

"This is Urd, to the unit," she whispered, tense. "I am with two Denepheans up north. The Space Emperor must be..."

A shadow fell to the floor before the clear moons. And a deep voice boomed, "What are you doing?"

The shapeshifter turned quickly. Behind her stood Reemook, his arms filled with shiny fruit. He observed Urd, his eyes expressed suspicion.

oOo

Meanwhile, in the prison, Keiichi and Bell tried to get out of a situation that was quickly growing strained.

Of course, Keiichi had considered using his communicator to contact Skuld, but like Urd the small device was not powerful enough to transmit through the magmatic activity around the prison hospital.

"Try to force the door!" Keiichi ordered.

"With a Proton gun? It will take too long; the ape-men will have time to join us." Retorted Belldandy.

"I'll handle it."

It was at that time an Ape-man jumped on them but Keiichi shot him. The monster collapsed.

"You k-killed him!?" Belldandy cried in horror.

"Of course not, he's just stunned. Now drill through that door please." Keiichi said politely, maintaining his sense of calm throughout the stressful situation.

However, their troubles were far from over. Having already imprisoned Keiichi and Belldandy in the lower levels of the prison with the ape men, the Emperor next lowered the screen protecting the prison from the sea of fire. "Farewell Captain Keiichi. And good luck." He said with a devilish laugh before disappearing into the floor."

While piercing the door, Belldandy noticed an ape-man who had managed to get past Keiichi. Reflexively, she shot it, grazing the man's leg and knocking him to the floor.

"Nice shot." Complimented Keiichi.

"I'd like to point out that I'm a government agent."

"I'd guessed. I saw you in action this morning in the street."

Bell finished drilling through the door. The duo had just reached the boarding area when the energy screen disappeared. Lava immediately began to hit the prison, endangering the ape-men, caregivers within. Although they could have easily escaped, Keiichi and Bell could not abandon these people to their fate. So instead they headed down to the control room.

Skuld, meanwhile, had noticed that something amiss, witnessing the lava jets strike the prison while the protective fields was inactive. She had brought the "Space Goddess" to protect the prison from the worst eruptions.

Keiichi was busily repairing the badly destroyed panels with a worried look. Belldandy watched him silently, her expression impressed. Heat and vibration made it's a very difficult job.

"It's not safe to stay here, Bell." Keiichi said, "Get out of here, return to the "Space Goddess"".

"But what about you?"

"Me? I have no right to flee and abandon the staff and patients." The man growled in frustration. "I need to connect this circuit, but I can not. If only Skuld was here."

"But I am here Captain," said Skuld who had just arrived in the room, having no reason to stay in the spaceship and wait while her brother was in trouble.

"SKULD!" Keiichi and Belldandy cried together.

"I thought something was wrong, so I came."

With her embedded tools, comprehensive technical knowledge and extreme precision, Skuld managed to reconnect the circuit and activate the shield before the lava began invading the innermost depths of the prison.

Keiichi and Belldandy escaped with just a few minor burns. No casualties, outside the operator killed, were reported.

The operator was dead and could no longer answer any questions but Keiichi looked in the archives of the computer's control panel to carry out some checks.

"Curious," he said after consulting the files.

An ape-man was taken to the "Space Goddess" for analysis.

"Megumi, Skuld, after our arrival, and during the whole time I was in prison, did you noticed any other spaceship?" Asked Keiichi.

"No, why?" replied the professor Megumi.

"Weird. I reviewed the surveillance video and computer files of the prison hospital. The videos show that the Space Emperor was here and that it is he who had trapped us. However, no ship has come to or left the prison. So where did the Space Emperor come from?"

"He must have crossed the sea of fire with his intangibility system." Suggested Megumi.

"I've thought so too, but I doubt it. My meeting with the governor was less than two hours ago. Yet the Emperor knew where I was going. How could he cross the sea of fire in such a short time? The intangibility would not increase his speed and I doubt he came on foot. The nearest border is more than 500 kilometers away. So where did he come from?"

"Curious indeed." Admitted Skuld.

"What about Urd? Has she called you?" Asked Keiichi.

"She tried to join but before she could convey her message, the communication was cut off. You made a mistake. You should not have entrusted this task to the gumdrop" replied Skuld.

"Yes, maybe I should never have sent one of our own to the enemy." Keiichi sighed with remorse.

At that time, a buzzer sounded and Urd appeared on the screen, unscathed.

"That's it Captain. I managed to locate the headquarters of the Space Emperor." She said with a cheerful voice.

"Whew. I was scared. What happened?" Asked the boy on worriedly "I thought you were in trouble."

"One of Denepheans caught me in the middle of a communication. I told him it was a device stolen from the Humans that I used to communicate with "my tribe" to reassure them that the "message" I'm supposed to pass on to the Space Emperor would be transmitted. I am a professional liar, remember? Now that I'm alone, I can tell you everything." Urd explained.

The Elusive Space Emperor. He'd managed to trap Captain Keiichi once. What was he plotting now, with the sea of fire roaring gravely in the night?

-  
"Captain Future and the Space Emperor." A work by Edmond Hamilton dating from 1940. When I was a child, a Japanese series were broadcast in my country, "Capitaine Flam". It was directly inspired by Hamilton works. My childhood hero, 10 years before DBZ, 20 years before One piece.


	3. The Ancient City

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of "Nena Camadera", I therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.

 **03) THE ANCIENT CITY**

 _An incredible event occurs in space. On the planet Deneph, Earthlings, suddenly, refound their cavemen characteristics, because of a plot to foment by a strange individual who calls himself "the Space Emperor". The Captain Keiichi and his sisters tries to fight against this tyrant, but they can do nothing against him as they pass through his body as if he were a ghost._

 _In an attempt to obstruct his plan, Keiichi decides to send her sister Urd, disguised, amongst Deneph's residents and load retrieve all possible information about their enemy. But this will suffice?  
_  
"According to information gathered by Urd, the Space Emperor should appear before his troops tomorrow evening. The people of Deneph will be gathering by the thousands in the ruins of an ancient city," explained Keiichi, indicating a point on a map he'd unfolded before Bell and Sen.

"There's a town there?" Asked Sen.

"No. As I said it is only the ruins of an ancient city. The people of Deneph once had a very advanced civilization, but with time this civilization declined and eventually disappeared."

"What is that this "O" marked on the map?" Asks the boy. 

"Oh, it shows the location of factories "Brewer and Co". If I remember correctly it is ruled by Mr. Cannig." Bell answered.

"That's interesting, and I think it's worth a quick look." Keiichi decided.

At this time a screen behind them flashed, revealing the image of Chihiro.

"Hello Colonel. Do you have interesting news?"

"I just learned that Mr. Cannig returned to Brewer factories because the labor was running." Chihiro explained before adding, "There is a possibility that one of them is actually the Space Emperor. It's a trail worth following."

"I had planned" Replied the boy.

Meanwhile, Megumi and Skuld proceeded to analyzes of the ape-man brought from the prison, in the hopes of creating a cure.

"Wait a minute. I think the professor will give us an explanation of this phenomenon back to prehistoric man."

"The professor is really an extraordinary woman, but can she find an effective remedy against this plague?" Chihiro asked.

"Yes. I think this will be possible. The cause of this phenomenon is the pituitary gland." Said Megumi.

"What is that this Pitui-gland thing?" Asked Sen.

"This is the gland that controls the development of the human body. You were not taught this in school?" Skuld answered.

"Be nice." Sen sighed, "and please don't ask me about school."

"Some kind of ray is affecting the pituitary gland. I don't know the ray's source, though. It completely reversed the effect of the pituitary gland, and this change has transformed the people into their prehistoric ancestors." Megumi explained.

Later, as he returned on Deneph, Belldandy had a conversation with Keiichi.

"Say Captain, tomorrow I was thinking about to going to Brewers factory for investigate about Mr. Brewer and Cannig." Belldandy said.

"No way." 

"But why not? I am a secret agent like the others. I can defend myself."

"The Space Emperor is too formidable an opponent. I myself am not enough strong to fight against him. So please, do not act imprudently, all right?" Keiichi explained.

"... Okay," Belldandy agreed in a small voice.

"Good, I knew you'd understand."

Later, the "Beemerlem" landed on Deneph, leaving Bell while Captain Keiichi took off again.

"Goodbye Captain of my heart and good luck for your return to your spacecraft. I hate to lie but you must never believe what a woman says. Tomorrow morning I am still making that trip to the factory." Belldandy said, waving goodbye to Keiichi, who could see her but was too far to hear her, especially over the noise of the Beemerlem's engines."

The next morning, while Belldandy boarded a helicopter service, she was intercepted by Chihiro.

"It surprises me that the Captain allowed you to go alone." She said.

"Oh do not worry ma'am. I intend to unravel the secret of the Space Emperor." Belldandy replied, ignoring Chihiro's question before taking off.

"Ah. To listen you'd swear she go to a party" Chihiro sighed, shrugging.

Urd noticed the helicopter approaching IN THE SKY.

"Looks like someone is going into the factory."

At that time, one of the Denephean's returned, this time armed with a weapon.

"Here. I came to tell you that from now on you are to eliminate any intruders." He told Urd handing her a gun.

"A Proton gun? But where did it come from? Even the Humans have trouble getting these weapons here." Urd asked.

"The plans are moving up. We distributed pistols and Proton rifles to all Denephean volunteers by order of the Emperor. The only rules is that these weapons do not fall into the hands of Humans."

"Of course not." Urd said while thinking "I wonder how they could have all these weapons."

Meanwhile, Megumi had begun the curative treatment she developed with Skuld.

"All we can do now is arm ourselves with patience to see if my remedy work or not. On another topic, the Emperor is a "shadow". How will you face it?" She asked Keiichi.

"I do not think he is always a shadow or image. At certain moments, he must be a palpable body, otherwise he would be impossible for him to hold a weapon, and don't forget that he shoot Etsuchi."

"That's right. I will reproduce the scene as I have registered." said his sister.

On this, the floating brain came near the wall, and used the device installed at the end of her two small robotic arms, she broadcast the scene on the wall, like a movie projector. "We can now see when the Emperor had boarded the "Space Goddess"".

"Watch. He has a command button on the belt." Said Keiichi.

"Perfectly true. In turning, he becomes at will an image or a real being, and by jointly using the conventional mass controller in his belt, he can sink through the floor or flying through the ceiling" adds the woman brain.

"So it's clear. If I want to succeed in the fight, I have to do it before he touches the button, as he will be a palpable body. " 

oOo

Belldandy explored the factory. "I do not know if everyone ran away, but it is quiet here, too quiet." She said to herself.

She was quickly discovered when a huge shadow descended. Turning around she saw a man who had devolved into an ape and was preparing to attack her. She had just enough time to neutralize the attack with the paralyzing function of her pistol.

Then she heard a scream.

"HELP !"

"MISTER BREWER !"

Rushing towards the cry, Belldandy saw the factory manager trying to escape another Ape-man. Quickly she shot it, paralyzing it as she had the other.

"Thank You. That was very close." Brewer sighed.

"You're not hurt I hope?"

"No, fortunately. Thank to you."

"You are very brave or very foolish to walk without bodyguards with whatever is happening here." Bell said.

"No," Brewer disagreed, "look at what's left for clothing on the poor devil." The man said evenly with the voice of a man in shock as he pointed to the ape-man.

Bell examined the body of the unconscious ape-man.

"Indeed. It is one of the guards of the factory."

"All earthlings who worked here have been affected by this terrible plague." Brewer sighed.

"Where is Mr. Cannig?"

"I do not know. I have not seen him for quite some time."

Belldandy and Brewer sought Cannig in the factory, screaming his name, prey to the worst concerns.

After a moment, Brewer fell to his knees in despair.

"He has surely gone too. Oh, he was an outstanding engineer and a good friend."

That's when Belldandy noticed something strange for a factory where the staff was absent.

"Tell me, I did not know that the factory was still operating." She asked to Brewer.

"Huh? But there are no more operations! The largest multi-production factory of Deneph has become a graveyard !" Said the director, surprised by the question.

"But look at these machines. A great deal of energy is used somewhere in the factory."

"What? What are you saying?"

Looking at the main control panel of the room where they were in, the director was forced to agree with Bell's words.

"Wait, we'll know right away where."

Brewer pressed a panel button, and then a surprising and disturbing spectacle took place under the eyes of the secret agent and manager.

A panel slid revealing an assembly line that displayed Proton pistols.

"That's impossible! The factory went into automatic mode and is making weapons!" Said the manager, who could not hide his surprise.

"It is perfectly true," said Cannig's voice that came through the door behind them, brandishing a gun at the two nosy intruders.

"Mr. Cannig!?" Marveled Belldandy.

"Throw your gun right now or I shoot him"

Belldandy could only obey.

"It's really insane ! But why are you doing this?" Asked Brewer, who could not believe in the reality of his situation.

Cannig was shaking, clearly reluctant to act on his threats, like he'd prefer to be elsewhere in the world.

"I ... I build these weapons and supply them to Deneph soldiers." He confessed, ashamed before adding "We trigger the de-evolution of the human species for the secret of this plan is well guarded."

Cannig took a breath to try to calm down before adding.

"It started with prospectors who approached too close to the Ancient city and then the inspectors of the factory, then a number of people having a key position in the chain of command, government, etc... To do believe an epidemic rather than a systematic targeting, some unwanted persons were infected at random... Including civilians. Another reason was to ensure the support of Denepheans into believing the "curse of the Ancients"".

"I understand ... So you are the Space Emperor." Brewer said, flabbergasted.

"Not at all. I don't know who the Space Emperor is but it's not me. I even fought against working for him at first. But soon he forced me to make proton guns, vehicles, shuttles and all military equipment to weaponize the population of Deneph who rallied to his orders. If I had refused to obey he... He would have turned me into a monster like the others."

Obviously, Cannig was disgusted, terrified, and sad. He was as an accomplice against his will, forced to betray his colleagues and friends.

"You... You know too much. I... I'm sorry, but I have... To make you shut up." He said, trembling more and more... Until his tremors became so uncontrollable that obviously they were not due to stress.

The spirit of Cannig was being let go while de-evolution syndrome prevailed before the terrified eyes of Belldandy and Brewer.

Bell had no trouble picking up the gun, and break down the creature before it regains a semblance of his senses for fight.

"Cannig, old friend… poor unfortunate soul…" lamented director Brewer, who cradled him gently.

"From the beginning, the Space Emperor planned to get rid of him when he was no longer needed." added Belldandy.

"What a truly despicable character. I hope the law succeeds in punishing him for his many crimes." Commented the director.

"The reality does not work like that. We are not in a Space Opera" said a voice .

"Who is here?" Bell asked, pointing her gun toward the voice.

"The Living Ancient, that you name "Space Emperor". Answered the voice, as the individual in question materialized before them.

Belldandy fired repeatedly without warning, but her shots passed through the body of the Emperor without doing him any harm.

"It will not help. Kei-boy should have warned you that nobody can do anything against me. He should also have warned you both that I have more than one trick up my sleeve."

The Emperor activated a button on his belt, allowing him to become solid once more, then press a second button on its mass controller, making him float slightly above the ground, then he pressed a last button on the control panel behind him. At this time an electric shock passed through the floor and knocked the director and Belldandy who barely had time to whisper.

"Captain..."

oOo

Megumi was about to prepare a new chemical formula which, she hoped, would prove able to restore the pituitary gland on victims of the epidemic, and provide them and healing. She had already tested several such formulas on "Solitary" that still there lay an artificial sleep, but without success.

With her "body" of metal placed on the pedestal, Megumi determined the exact quantities and operations to combine, and Skuld realized with an accuracy that only a robot or a god was capable of performing, pouring, mixing, weighing, and heating according to the instructions of the brain.

Together, Megumi and Skuld had worked well for years. Urd was too restless and eager to make an ideal partner for the brain, except when it came to chemistry-related cosmetics. But Skuld with inhuman patience and precision was the ideal partner.

The formula was finally over. Night had fallen since long. Megumi dictated to Skuld which inject the pink liquid in the veins of drugged Earthling.

Then, the brain and robot connect various analysis camera and made several observations in the skull of the man addict for several hours.

"It seems to work!" Exclaimed finally Megumi. "We found a remedy, Skuld!"

"But this man seems always the same," objected the robot dubiously watched the brutal victim.

"Of course, he will not heal in one minute," quipped Megumi before adding, "But now his pituitary gland to function normally again, and his body and his brain become human again in a few days. If course this remedy is as effective as it looks."

Meanwhile, Keiichi was in a video link with Chihiro.

"Her name is Shiho Sakakibara. There's been no news of her since she left the jungle, which was almost a month ago." Explained the colonel.

"Megumi think that the Space Emperor is relying on the people of Deneph, in order to complete his plan against humanity." Keiichi said.

"Yes. He must make them believe that he is the "Living Ancient" of the Denephean legends and that is probably why they accept to obey him."

"Do you know where is Belldandy? She doesn't answer on the videolink." Asked Sen.

"What do you mean? You don't know she's gone to Brewer's factory this morning?" Chihiro replied in astonishment.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Keiichi exclaimed surprised and worried.

"She even told me that you agreed."

Panicked, the Captain immediately went to the Brewer factory, hoping to find Belldandy safe.

There, he found the body of the director Brewer, left there by the Space Emperor.

Approaching, Keiichi saw that the director was still alive but in very bad shape.

"Mr. Brewer!" the boy said, rolling the man onto his back from where he laid on the ground

Regaining consciousness, the director told the Captain all he knew.

"Captain, you're too late."

"What happened to Belldandy?" Keiichi asked, very worried.

"The Space Emperor... abducted her."

"The Space Emperor? But then he was in this factory? Why was he here?"

"I think... That he was picked weapons. The agent Belldandy came... This morning. We discovered that the Space Emperor... Had forced Cannig... Manufactured weapons. The... weapons to arm Denepheans. Ca... Cannig said... said the de-evolution process of humanity... had been triggered to... to keep away the curious and... to get rid some important people."

Brewer stopped to catch his breath, he was becoming weaker.

He... He forced Cannig work for him and later…. Devolve him... He took Belldandy. I... I do not know where. I... I guess if... If he no longer needs Cannig is that he must be ready, now." 

"Ready for what?" Asked Keiichi

"I do not know... But Denepheans now have weapons... Proton's weapon."

The director Brewer fainted again, out of strength.

The Captain took the director over his shoulders and brought him to the "Space Goddess" for him to receive care.

With the information provided secretly by Urd, the Captain Keiichi knew that the Space Emperor should make an appearance tonight in the ancient city of Deneph.

Given its size it was not hard to find. It was old ruins located in the heart of the jungle, discovered at the beginning of the exploration of the planet by humans. On Earth it would have been a great tourist attraction, but tourism was absolutely not developed on Deneph.

After leaving Brewer in the "Space-goddess" to the professor, he took the "Beemerlem" and approached as close as possible to the ancient city. To not aroused suspicion, he put about twenty kilometers. From there, join the city only take a few hours. The real challenge was to avoid Denepheans he saw from time to time. This is to avoid being spotted he had deliberately chosen a difficult path from maps, where Denepheans mount could not move.

It was not difficult to move though. As on Earth, there was on Deneph a developed satellite geolocation system that allowed him to know at all times where he was just by looking at one of the dials on the left cuff of his suit. Even though the system would have had difficulties in getting its signal through the jungle, Keiichi only had to strain to hear the distant sound of drums. Obviously, the Denepheans was preparing to an important event.

The earth drums pulsing green men in the night, as the dark heart of the wild Deneph! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Captain watched solemnly beyond the tree-ferns roof. The moons of the planet converged their zenith. Three bright moons approaching in a wonderful combination.

"The time of the conjunction of the three moons surely is the time when the Space Emperor will appear," he muttered to himself.

A moment later he stiffened, as he hurried along a small trail he was following a mountainside, the ground controller allowing him to fly slightly, and crossing barriers no man could crossed otherwise.

He infallibly follow narrow trails that meandered through the hard rocks. And he had always kept the red and furious burst of the Sea of Fire on his right.

The jungle was weird tonight! The penetrating radiance of the three moons was a fantastic and enchanted land with deep black shadows, draped in a silver light.

High above his head stretched-tree ferns, the ends darted their spores buds. The blinding light of the moon revealed the metallic sheen of the brass-trees. Blind snakes dangling vine hanging from the branches.

Between the huge trunks of ferns bloomed beautiful and tempting "shocking flowers", their buds ready to administer an electric shock from biochemical "batteries" inside their calyx to small insects who approached before engulf and dissolve them.

Giant lily bloomed night in the shadows, their broad petals opened and closed smoothly. Descendant of the tallest trees, spores dust clouds floated and glittered, and when the wind moved them, they covered all the things below.

While he would travel the distance that separated him from the city, Keiichi forestay prey to dark thoughts.

At first he thought the Space Emperor was a kind of bandit trying to start a crime syndicate and become rich and had got hold of a "thing" for him to establish his power, or at worst, a terrorist who will commit attacks. He now understood that he had seriously underestimated just how dangerous his enemy was.

If the population of Deneph was really under him, and if they now had proton weapons in hand, then the ambitions of the Emperor went far beyond a crime syndicate, or even terrorism.

"The Space Emperor should appear before his troops this evening in the city, according Urd. This is surely there that all Denepheans should be gone. If I can be there when the Space Emperor will appear, and if I can catch him when he is not in an intangible state... "

Somewhere ahead, he knew, stood the place of appointment which his sister had spoken, the place that Denepheans called the "Place of the Dead". There the earth drums resounded. And there, if he was lucky, he could confront the terrible criminal who terrorized an entire world.

A voltage such that he had rarely felt rising inside the boy hurrying. He felt that his second meeting with the Space Emperor approaching.

But what would be the result? Would he be able to catch the individual, inattentive, in its normal physical state or was there no chance for that to happen? And otherwise?

"Almost there" thought Keiichi, while the sound of drums indicated that he was just one or two kilometers from its destination.

The good news is that there was virtually no more Denepheans in the jungle. All had gathered in their city. No one wants to be late or absent when the "Living ancient" will appear.

The bad news is that there were probably no more a long time before that moment arrives. Keiichi had not much time to find its target.

The Captain found himself facing a fantastic scene. It was a circular land one kilometer and a half wide in the jungle, where only a few ferns, trees, bushes and vines grew.

In this clearing, bathed in silvery rays of the three moons, lay the crumbled ruins of what had once been a beautiful city.

A city of the past unknown Deneph, a mysterious metropolis, there are long, had fallen into ruin and was absorbed by the jungle! Gigantic black buildings collapsed unveiled an advanced architecture, solemnly towered well above shrubs and creeping vines.

Keiichi saw that the cobbled streets and squares were broken and covered with mold and fungus climbing. Arched colonnades had existed, but of these, only remained the pillars, black stone isolated and broken.

"The "Place of the Dead", this is how the Denepheans call this city. The name is well chosen." He whispered to himself.

The boy had previously looked some planetary Necropolis in other worlds. He had seen the wonderful lost cities of Tetrias, Sigoon moon, that nobody remembered the story. He was accustomed to the mysterious ruins found around the deserts of Phacyr.

But he had, he felt, ever seen a dark place dimly awake this ruined and forgotten metropolis lying there under the bright Deneph moons. This city had to be so glorious past that, millions of years later, he could still feel his greatness fill the air.

A crowd of Denepheans was assembled in the city, the Captain looked for the largest concentration of people, as it would be a sure indication on where the Space Emperor would appear. Almost all seemed have Proton weapons.

Keiichi had managed to sneak between Denepheans unnoticed, thanks to a small cloaking device he wore on his belt. The problem was that the device was using a lot of energy and he only had a few minutes of battery life when the Captain arrived in the great Colosseum in the city. 

Another small weakness of the mechanism is that when used it, Keiichi had to wear special lenses to his eyes, which refracted invisibility. Otherwise, Keiichi, would have been blind since no light could reach his eyes. The lenses allow him to see, but then his own eyes were visible. That's why he had followed a rather special training to use this device, moving with his eyes narrowed to counter this flaw maximum.

The Colosseum was filled with Denepheans, all awaiting the appearance of the Emperor. Keiichi was hidden behind a pillar on the Colosseum border.

Looking in the sky, the Captain could see the gigantic satellite 9 approaching.

Awaiting the appearance of the Emperor, Keiichi took advantage of this time to install the Proton gun sniper he had brought with him, to shoot his target.

Until now, he had never killed anyone. Unfortunately, this time he had no choice. He could not come closer and it was too far for a ray set to a paralyzing frequency can be effective on his target. He was therefore obliged to resort to drastic means.

Keiichi felt something inside himself about to break. A large part of his innocence would disappear forever when he would shoot. He had never had any illusions. He knew that one day, he would be forced to make such a decision if he was not dead before. He had hoped it would be as late as possible, but whatever the time, it would still be too soon.

To give himself courage he thought, not what the Emperor had done or that he "deserved" to die, or even that himself had no choice.

No, he thought that the Emperor was about to do. He now had a good idea of the plans of his enemy, and when to avoid such horror, the price was the life of the Space Emperor and his own innocence, then this would be a small price to pay. This murder would weigh on his conscience for the rest of his life, but much less than all the dead who come back to haunt him if the Emperor reached his purposes.

As terrible as it was, the choice was simple.

The situation had become far too serious with the knowledge that the Emperor was arming the Deneph population.

The three moons had just line up.

"He is coming! The Living ancient coming!" Howled the Denepheans into a joyful cry.

That's when three lights beams appeared in the ground from the center to the Colosseum with the Emperor in the center, holding bound and gagged Belldandy. 

While the action plan mounted in haste by Keiichi fell into the water with this disastrous surprise, he knew that the Space Emperor was for the moment material and vulnerable. But he could not pull him so he would... Bell. However he had to admit, with some shame, that part of him was relieved not to shoot.

"I can not shoot. I might hit Bell." Keiichi thought.

That's when the Emperor spoke.

"Hail the mighty descendant of the ancient and powerful Deneph civilization. Your Living Ancient, the Space Emperor, just announce that the time sounded. You will once again obtain the glory and power that were yours in the past. We will soon exterminate the wretched inhabitants of the Earth."

He confided her prisoner at Reemook.

Keiichi was about to shoot, but before he had time, the Emperor turned the knob of his belt, becoming intangible.

"As long as we keep she like an hostage the Captain Keiichi will not attack us." Said the Emperor.

"So he thinks." Keiichi thought.

"Now my loyal subjects, we will gather and pray our gods, FOR THEY WILL GIVE US TOTAL VICTORY!"

The Denepheans then joined their hands and began to pray.

"I need to save Bell." thought Keiichi by operating the invisibility of the belt system, hoping he still had enough energy to cover him and Bell long enough to leave the city.

Become invisible again, the Captain broke through the crowd between him and the emperor quickly. Some Denepheans were somewhat rushed, but seeing nothing, they did not understood that an invisible man passed among them.

Keiichi was able to get close to Bell and began to detach, in ordering her to stay calm.

He felt Belldandy freeze, then relax. He worked on her bonds, which he discovered were made of metal strings and unfortunately, the chain that bound her was particularly strong.

Keiichi could neither undo nor break. When firing the gun Proton, it would have made too much noise, and seriously burn the Bell's arm.

Madly, he searched his belt, then pulled out a small sharp tool. Gently, to make no sound, cut the cord after a while.

And the cloaking device fell short of energy. Keiichi appeared in the center of the Colloseum before the whole crowd of hostile Denepheans.

"A HUMAN!" Exclaimed Reemook.

"Now things get complicated." said the Captain..

"Hello Kei-boy. You made a mistake coming here." Said the Emperor, delighted his foe had fallen into his hands. 

Keiichi drew his gun and pulled the trigger towards the sinister black silhouette. Now that he was discovered, he would try at least once more to destroy the Emperor.

The attempt was futile as he foresaw. The proton beam is scattered through the immaterial form of the Space Emperor without hurting him.

The situation was hopeless. If he had tried to run away, literally surrounded by Denepheans, he would not get far before being shot.

At that moment, shots are triggered from the back of the Colloseum towards the Emperor from where Urd was. She continued to shoot while rushing to the aid of her brother. Her agility allows she to pass through the Denepheans (by jump on their heads eventually) fast like a panther. The Denepheans, completely taken by surprise, did not even try to stop her. She need only a few seconds to cover the distance that separated her of the center of the Colosseum.

"STOP THEM !" Commanded the Emperor, quicker to recover from the surprise that his troops.

Too late, Urd, Belldandy and Keiichi had jumped in the three openings in the center of the Colosseum. They knew that there would surely be trapped but maybe they could sneak out of the city by underground. At worst, they would be much more difficult to capture. 

What they did not know was that the three openings in the ground does not lead to an underground city as they had thought in an emergency, but directly in a cul de sac.

"They jumped into the prison" smiled the Emperor knowing that his enemies could not escape him.

With their ground controllers incorporated, Bell and Keiichi could land without risk, Urd, for her part, had nothing to fear from a fall from that height.

No longer needing to hide, Urd resumed her original appearance of a young woman with brown skin and white hair. 

"I think this time it was really dangerous." Urd said.

"Yes, you saved us this time." Keiichi said before adding "This ray of light is blinding. I wonder what it is."

Aboard the "Space Goddess", Sen made a remark.

"The giant meteor is emitting light rays."

"That isn't normal. Something must be causing it." adds Megumi.

"Does anyone know where we are?" Belldandy asked.

"No, but we'll have to find a way to get out fast" said Keiichi.

"You will not escape, Kei-boy. Rest assured, you will not grow bored with us. I'll keep you well entertained with the de-evolution of humanity." Declared the Space Emperor located about ten meters above them.

With this, Reemook brandished some kind of beam-emitting device towards Urd and Keiichi…. But not on Belldandy.

"I'm guessing that ray acts on the pituitary gland and reverses the function." Keiichi said.

"It seems we can hide nothing from you. In a few hours we will be pleased to see you turn into prehistoric man." Confirmed the Emperor on a tone playful and sadistic.

This was mostly true. Only Urd was immune to the device thanks to her own biology.

Keiichi used his ground controller to jump towards the Emperor, only to be pushed back by a protective screen.

"You are in the prison of the ancient city. An electromagnetic wall prevents you from escaping. It is too powerful to be able to cross it... But you won't have to wait long. Soon you will become harmless and then no one will oppose our plans. HAHAHAHA! So "Captain" Kei-boy, I wish to know, what does a "hero" like you, when he is overcome by his adversary?"

"I don't understand why you think I've admitted defeat. I haven't stopped fighting." Said Keiichi.

"You have no choice."

"You will cannot keep me a prisoner."

"I do not have time to chat with you. I have something more important to do." Said the Space Emperor before to leave. 

"Why did he spare me there in your opinion? He does not forgotten me in conversation isn't it? He is one to spare the women and children, you think?" Belldandy asked.

"Given what he has done to all these people, including women, and the war that he is about to start, I do not think that's the reason. I do not understand either." Admitted Keiichi.

"In any case he does not spare you Captain. I am really sad for you." Belldandy sighed bitterly.

The young woman, fully aware of what was going to happen, watched the Captain…. No…. Keiichi, her blue eyes were widened in horror. It was as if the girl still not able to admit what was happening.

"You... Become a beast, here," she muttered hoarsely. "Change... More horrible, every day..."

The Keiichi's silhouette stood before her, he grabbed her shoulders with his hands and shook it.

"Bell, calm down!" He ordered harshly. "This is not the time to become hysterical. We are in a lot of trouble and we need our two entire brain and nerves to get us out of here."

"I do not care for me but for you Captain. What a horrible fate!" Said the girl. "Even if we succeed to escape, you still will change again and again, as these horrors in the hospital...

She taken Keiichi's hand inside his own.

"Captain... I mean... Keiichi. Know that even if we remain locked up here, I would not abandon you. Even if you become a horrible hairy monster, I will make all what I can to relieve you. It's my fault if you are a prisoner here. Whatever happens, I'll stay with you," she said in a determinedly seeking to reassure Keiichi (which remained surprisingly quiet considering its situation).

"I'm... sorry," she stammered. "It is you who are truly in danger and it is I who has almost cracked nervously. Excuse me for letting myself go. I worried so much for you"

Indeed. Belldandy will be absolutely no concern her own fate or Emperor's plan. She saw only Keiichi and the fate that awaited him. She regretted that her human limitations do not allow her to help him in this situation. She swore that even if Keiichi turned into ape-man, or worst, rat-man, and could not be cured, so she would take care of him and would remain by his side no matter what. Forever if she had to.

"No worries Bell. There is nothing to fear. I'm sure the professor was able to develop an effective remedy. She was working on it when I left. We're not going to die and I will not change!" Keiichi said with determination before adding "It will take hours, maybe even days, before the disorder of the pituitary gland begins to affect me, softly. This gives us a reasonable time to try to escape."

His eyes flashed when he added:

"And that's probably the most important thing we have done so far in our lives, not just for ourselves but to prevent this megalomaniac to do what he intends to do. He urges Denephean to engage in a war against the earthling, and this attack could start in a few hours! If I put myself to imagine the carnage, I could not think of anything, and yet it is what I must do now."

His fists clenched.

"I have an idea now of how the Space Emperor can be beat: the only way. But it is useless as we are trapped here. "

"You would not be here if you had not tried to help me after I disobeyed your instructions," said Bell with guilt.

"No. In fact it is you were right to act. Thanks to you and Mr Brewer, we learned that the Emperor was arming the Denepheans, and I could prevent the authorities. At least they will not be taken by surprise. Your only mistake was to go without a squad" consoled the Captain.

"Keiichi, do you think we can dig stairs and climb up there to get out of here?"

"That we would not be very useful, Emperor surely left some guards at the top" said Keiichi. His eyes scrutinized the metal walls surrounding them. "But there must be a way."

"Yes, perhaps, but unfortunately our transmitters are malfunctioning and I can't communicate with the others." Urd said, worried.

"So we will have to fend for ourselves."

A moment later, three more rays of light sprang from Satellite 9 and connected to those of the ancient city.

The Space Emperor then addressed his people.

"In the legends of our most distant ancestors, it is said that one day, three powerful light rays will come down from heaven, and will shed light on our ancient city... And on that day, a miracle will happen. The long awaited moment has arrived. Do not be afraid, the legend also says that the weapons that will defeat the people of Earth will be inside the giant meteor. Follow me! Follow me without fear!"

The Emperor then disappeared, teleported aboard the satellite, soon followed by his soldiers.

"This is worrying. We still have no news of the Captain" Skuld said.

"Yes. This is not normal. Let's go to the ancient city." Megumi nodded.

In the prison, Keiichi examined their surroundings. Apparently the imprisoning magnetic field was generated by a sort of control tower located in the center of the room.

"We need to leave here, so, we must destroy this device," said the boy.

"We've lost enough time. We must act quickly," adds Urd.

However, the firing of their weapons did not reach the target.

"It is useless. The magnetic field diverts rays." Muttered the Captain.

Moreover... The control tower was not disarmed. The firing of Protons guns sparked a defense mechanism. Four mechanical arms became active, trying to catch and to immobilize the three prisoners.

What neither Keiichi nor the Emperor did not know is that this place was not strictly speaking a prison... But a sports field.

Formerly the people of Deneph used this place for circus games, comparable to those of ancient Rome on Earth. There was no fight to the death but the machine function was to catch members of the "team" on inside the room. The goal was to escape it as long as possible.

Of course, nobody entered the arena with weapons. The magnetic field that deflected their ray was simply there to protect the spectators who watched over by three openings, rather than to prevent players out. If the machine was itself protected against the rays, it was a pure coincidence design, not voluntary coverage.

Unfortunately, this old harmless sport now turned into a trap.

The Urd's flexibility allowed her to easily avoid these mechanical arms, Keiichi managed it pretty well too, but Belldandy was quickly caught.

Urd was still hoping to get a successful shot in but it was useless.

"Stop. The machine is not afraid of laser, but she grabbed Bell."

"What do you mean?" Urd asked.

"That means we can approach the machine without the force field prevents us, so attack it with bare hands. Go ahead. Your body is much stronger than mine, you should be able to damage it."

With that, Urd threw herself against the machine with as much force as her body would allow. Keiichi also fell on it, shoulder first. 

The machine was designed in the sport, not a defense. It was not supposed to resist any attack, on the contrary. It had been made with a relative fragility to be destroyed quickly if something goes wrong.

After a few moments, one of the mechanical arm released Bell.

"See if you can contact the "Space Goddess." Keiichi ordered.

"Okay."

Belldandy opened her communicator while Urd and Keiichi continued to attack the machine.

Aboard the "Space Goddess", Sen was monitoring communications when Bell's face appeared.

"That's Belldandy on the screen." said Sen.

"We are prisoners somewhere in the ancient city of Deneph, in the centre of Colosseum where there are three big holes." Belldandy explained.

"We'll be there in a moment. Skuld, prepare to shoot with the Proton cannon." Megumi said.

Skuld quickly approached the "Space Goddess" and with her electronic brain made the necessary calculations to get the Proton cannon on prison. She needed to be accurate and properly adjust the weapon to ensure it was just strong enough to destroy the prison without killing the prisoners within.

Some minutes later, Skuld used the cannon. The flash of light was powerful, but very good target. The surface of the prison exploded, however, the inside was spared.

The explosion, however, provoked a collapse of the walls. Keiichi threw himself to the ground protecting Belldandy from the rubble as best he could. It takes a few minutes for the smoke and dust to settle.

"That pile of scrap metal nearly killed up!" Urd cried, dusting herself off as best she could. She stared in horror at the dirt that covered her beautiful body.

Meanwhile, the antidote developed by the professor, which had been injected into "solitary" had gotten satisfactory results. "Now we have to deal with Keiichi."

"You have received a massive dose of this ray. If I had not managed to develop this medicine so quickly, you'd a prehistoric man by now." Megumi said with some pride. 

"I always had faith in your genius, to you and Skuld." Keiichi replied with a smile.

"Look, the giant meteor" Belldandy told.

Indeed, light was clearly visible on its surface, as well as battle ship.

Aboard the meteor, the Emperor was giving orders.

"Soldiers of the planet Deneph, the hour of victory approach. We will trigger a total attack against our enemies when we fly over Jovopolis in 8 hours and 20 minutes."

 _The evil Space Emperor, decided to launch Deneph planet troops in a mad enterprise of conquest and domination. Only Captain Keiichi can still prevent this massacre._


	4. The final battle

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of "Nena Camadera", I therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.

 **04) The final battle.  
**

 _The Space Emperor had so far managed to get the upper hand in his struggle against Captain Keiichi._

He's gathered the soldiers of the planet Deneph on its giant meteor and with Keiichi a prisoner in an arena in the ancient city of the planet, the Space Emperor prepared to launch a general offensive against all Humans living on Deneph and beyond.

While Skuld and Megumi, remained aboard his spaceship, the "Space Goddess," Keiichi, Belldandy and Urd manage to escape from their prison, but can they intervene in time to prevent the Space Emperor from implementing his projects?

While the satellite approached its target, the Space Emperor entered communication on planetary waves.

"Governor Eiri. I know you hear me. You have 8 hours and 15 minutes before the attack. I advise you to surrender immediately."

"Where is he?" The governor Eiri asked.

"On Satellite 9, near the planet Deneph." Replied the colonel.

"Legend says that this meteor was thrown off the planet by a violent explosion a long time ago, and was then converted into a satellite for this planet." Eiri explained.

The legends were true. This mysterious meteor originated from the planet Deneph. Over time, it was converted into a satellite by the planet it was orbiting. But its people secretly arranged the interior into a true basis of space and it is from this basis that the fantastic armada set up by the Space Emperor emerged for future conquests.

Aboard the "Space Goddess" Captain Keiichi began discussing military tactics with Colonel Chihiro.

"We have no hope of resisting a massive attack. We only have a few spaceships which will be quickly overwhelmed by their numbers." Explained the Colonel.

"It's really not worth it. Listen Sir, have you ever fought against a swarm of bees?" Asked the Captain.

"What do you mean? Why are you asking me that?"

"You can crush ten, twenty, or even a hundred. It does not stop other bees. On the other hand, if you manage to crush the queen, the attack stops immediately."

"In other words, we have to directly take out the Space Emperor. Do you have any idea of how you are going to act?" Asked the colonel.

At that time, the Colonel's communicator rang and the voice of Governor Eiri was heard.

"Colonel Chihiro, come right away, come right away!" Said the distraught voice.

"The governor has urgently requested my presence. This meeting must come to an end." Chihiro told the others. To Governor Eiri she said, "I shall be with you as soon as possible."

Moments later, Chihiro joined the originator of the call and found the Governor Eiri above the body of an ape-woman.

"How did an Ape-man get up here?" Chihiro asked.

"According to her clothes, I'm guessing it's miss Halburn." Eiri replied sadly.

"Halburn?"

"She didn't appear at work today, so I went to her neighborhood to see if she was okay. I discovered that she'd been transformed into an ape-woman, however, fortunately I had my anesthetic gun."

Soon after, Chihiro was again in contact with Captain Keiichi and explained the situation to him.

"Poor Halburn was the next victim of this terrible disease that strikes Humans here. This means that of our four initial suspects, only Governor Eiri is left, but she was in the presence of several people when you saw the Space Emperor."

"So Eiri is not the Space Emperor either." concludes Belldandy.

"She could not fight both against us and be in the base at the same time."

"Say, you don't think the Emperor is Shiho Sakakibara, do you?" Suggested Sen.

"Who is Sakakibara? Ah yes, the scientist who disappeared while she was studying the ancient civilization of Deneph." Urd said.

"Sen's opinion is not necessarily false, since the Space Emperor also knows the secrets of the ancient civilization of Deneph." Megumi said.

"Indeed. We'll go back to the ancient city." decided the Captain Keiichi.

Shortly after, the "Space Goddess" returned to the Colosseum. In the center was a globe representing the Deneph planet.

"Look, there's a mark on this world, which according to my sensor has been traced recently. Probably by a human hand. I guess this is the work of Shiho Sakakibara," Concludes Megumi.

"What is this place?" Belldandy asked.

"This is the entrance to the old Mount Deneph, located in the Sea of Fire. Sakakibara obviously knows about this place, and coincidentally, the Space Emperor appeared right after this terrible "disease" was discovered." Keiichi said.

"So you think it is Sakakibara?"

"Right now I don't know Bell, but the only way to find out is to follow the same path as her.

Immediately the "Space Goddess" took her crew to the indicated place.

Deneph's Sea of Fire! The most dangerous and breathtaking scenery on the planet!

It stretched before them once again, a vast ocean of crimson and boiling lava that stretched to the distant horizons and beyond for 2400 km.

The surface of this ocean was comprised of orange magma and red-hot flames. Small, heavy waves covered its surface, with bubbling maelstroms swirling in its midst. Above, there were dancing flames that looked like leprechauns, and swirls of smoke. The irradiated heat would have been unbearable without the protective shell of the vessel.

"Do not travel too far from land, Skuld, a well-placed lava jet could destabilize the vessel. Hug the shoreline." Said Keiichi

"Okay Captain." echoed Skuld.

She swerved the ship east before expressing her feelings: "I do not like this place."

"Me neither, I'd rather be on the ice floes of Raka instead of here," admitted Keiichi, contrite.

"I do not see anything along the shore." remarked Urd.

"Indeed. However there must be something here from the map."

Below them lay the south shore of the Sea of Fire. The molten waves of the ocean of flames licked the huge range of hills with black rocks, serving as dikes that repelled the waves.

The rocky cliffs of the hills was heavily encrusted with solidified lava, showing the footprints of the tides where the waves reached the lava. But on this incredible shore there was little else to see and what's more, it seemed impossible that a single living creature could have one day set foot there.

Captain Keiichi looked at this with great attention, while the ship roared eastward along the shore. He was convinced that there would be some ruins or other remains to mark the spot that had once been used by the ancients.

The doubt grew in Keiichi as the kilometers stretched on below him, unnoticed. There must be something, he thought, as he had the evidence from the ancient world map with the 'Place of the Dead" to guide him.

An hour passed, during which they had flown uniformly throughout the east coast of the ocean.

They watched with great attention. Yet there was nothing else to see but the lava encrusted in the rocky cliff and the ocean's fiery-red molten lava that stretched away on their right.

Suddenly, Skuld slowed the ship. She had noticed something in front of a strange opening in the rocky shore on the banks of the sea of lava.

They approached, gravitating to the above point.

"This must be the place that we seek!" Said the robot girl.

"But I see nothing but a big round hole in the cliff where the lava flows," Urd said, intrigued.

Below them, there was a large opening in the circular and jagged rocky hill sloping, right where the ocean of fire fell on it.

A stream of molten lava flowed incessantly between the lips of the mouth, with a heavy resonance, like thunder.

"There is a kind of large cavernous space down there in the rock," said Skuld, her robotic eyes were much more effective than Keiichi's human vision, or even Urd's modified vision.

"And the opening that leads down is too round to be natural. It is as if it was artificially created or extended in the past."

"Bravo Skuld. The ancient place we seek is certainly down in this hole." Congratulated Keiichi before adding, "It's a possibility, anyway, and it corresponds roughly with the card. We have not seen any other place that might be what we seek. We'll go in."

"But how do we get down there?" Skuld sounded intrigued. "There appears to be no other opening than that by which the lava falls, Captain. Even with the Beemerlem, it seems very dangerous."

Keiichi grimaced at his sister. "When there's only one entrance, we can't afford to be picky, Skuld. This is our only way to enter. There was barely enough room for the shuttle to do so without being caught by the fire cascade".

Skuld stared at her brother in exasperation and bemusement.

Keiichi was calm, yet he knew the perilous nature of the descent they were about to attempt.

Shortly after, the Captain left his Spaceship aboard the "Beemerlem" and entered the cave beneath the lava flow of the Sea of Fire. Skuld accompanied him.

"Skuld, show us your driving skills by entering this corridor."

"Passing through the lava flow?" Asked Skuld.

"Of course. If Shiho Sakakibara could enter before us, you should succeed too."

He would have taken control himself, but he knew that Skuld, with all her internal sensors, processing speed and robotic calm was a much better pilot than him. He had complete faith in the abilities of his sister and had already entrusted his life to her many times.

Skuld moved the controls slightly, photoelectric robotic eyes staring straight down. The small shuttle reacted, pricked gently to the dark jagged opening, in which the fire waterfall flowed into indefinable depths. The frail craft plunged even its keel, supported by its keel-tubes. The lava cataract was only a meter on their side and its tumult was deafening. Raging drafts screamed at the shuttle in its descent. His stern squeaked ominously against the side of the cliff, threatening to send the spacecraft tumbling into the lava.

But Skuld expertly navigated the ship, keeping its descent directly down. A moment later, they came down through the opening in a vast dark underground space strangely illuminated by the red glow of a lava waterfall.

"Keep moving to this cave if you please, Skuld," asked Keiichi.

They arrived in a cave with a width of about three kilometers and an indeterminate length. There, they rested.

"These galleries would have certainly allowed the Emperor to appear and disappear at the hospital at will. Skuld? What is it?"

Indeed, Skuld tilted her robotic head, the soft metal of her face reflecting concern. "I hear moaning over there," she replied.

Keiichi and Skuld followed the direction of the noise and came in a corridor with several armored doors. Skuld stopped at one of them.

"There's a woman behind that door." She said to Captain Keiichi.

"Open it."

Skuld then tried to force the door with her finger laser, without success. "It does not work. This door is made of a metal absolutely unassailable." she said after a while. Searching the sides of the room, they found a button to operate the shutter. It had been covered in dust and had initially escaped their notice.

The door then opened, allowing Keiichi and Skuld to enter the vault. In the center was a body lying on the ground.

That's an Human!" Skuld exclaimed, waving her metal arm.

Keiichi had seen the woman at the same time. She was not more than twenty meters away.

A puny figure in a brown suit threadbare zipper, the individual lay back, her face against the rocky floor of the cavern. Next to her, there was a table on which a lamp was off, and many papers covered with triangular and elongated writing.

"She is either unconscious or asleep, Captain," said the robot girl.

It was pretty easy to guess which. The woman was snoring like a truck. It was that…natural…sound that Skuld had initially heard.

Keiichi leaned over the woman, or rather the girl, and in doing so he smelled a recognizable sour scent. "She was drugged." The Captain turned the girl onto her back. "Snore's" face (because she seemed to snore more than she slept) was illuminated in the red glow of the fire river.

That's when Keiichi and Skuld saw the monogram on the synthetic silk jacket of "Snore". The letters were 'S. S.' "No doubt the famous Shiho Sakakibara. She was drugged. Give her an antidote, quickly." Keiichi said.

Meanwhile, the Space Emperor, which was monitoring the "Space Goddess" from his base, had noticed that it had approached the place where the galleries were. He then ordered his men to continue the preparations for the general attack, and took a small vessel to personally go to the scene.

In her resilient metal body, Skuld had a compartment where she kept some emergency medicines for various situations. Now she opened it, removing a small cylinder of anti-narcotic.

Keiichi was struggling to contain his excitement as he placed the woman in a sitting position. He suspected for some time that Shiho Sakakibara was probably the key to everything in this interstellar conspiracy. And now finally, he had found the young archaeologist.

"She was drugged more than once. Look at all the needle scars on her wrists." Skuld remarked as she made an injection in Shiho's arm.

As the tiny drop of anti-narcotic overkill dispersed into the bloodstream of the young archaeologist, she began to shake. A moment later she opened her dark eyes and dazed. She seemed exhausted.

"Kill... Kill me, please," were her first words, hoarseness, and blurred vision. Then the vision of Shiho Sakakibara cleared and as she saw Captain Keiichi and the large female robot staring down at her, she gave a shocked cry. "But who are you?"

"I am the Captain Keiichi, and you must be Shiho Sakakibara."

"Y... Yes." The young archaeologist knew the name, like most humans in the galaxy. As the words penetrated her foggy mind, a feverish relief came over her face. "Thank God, you came!" She wept. "These last few weeks have been hell for me here. The Space Emperor..."

"Who is the Space Emperor?" Keiichi strongly asked impatiently.

But again he was disappointed.

"I do not know!" Cried the young Shiho before adding, "I feel like I've been dealing with a demon. It may seem childish to say that, but that is the only way I can describe him. He kept me here for weeks, forcing me to read him these Ancient Denephean inscription and drugging me whenever he was finished with me."

"You're the one who discovered this place, are you not?" Asked Keiichi.

"Yes" Shiho nodded weakly. "I found it, and I thought I had made the greatest archaeological discovery of the history of the planet."

Now she sat and spoke with frantic speed.

"I came to Deneph because I had heard legends recounting an ancient and powerful race that had once inhabited this planet. I wanted to sort fact from fiction. From Jovopolis I went north to the jungles and there I tried to learn from the Denepheans themselves, but they became suspicious when I mentioned the legends of the Ancients. Then I learned that they often met for ceremonies in an area they called the "Place of the Dead", so I followed them there and I discovered that it was an old city that no one had really explored yet. There, I found a Deneph world map, left by the Ancients. It showed the locations of their cities. But a site was scored differently from the others, and I thought it was probably more important. It was located on the shore of the Sea of Fire, where no city could have been built ordinarily."

Shiho paused to catch her breath.

"As the case was going to push me to take some risks and that my budget diminished, I went to the governor. I remember it very well. Her secretary, Valerie Halburn, did not seem very enthusiastic about the story. She feared provoking conflict with the natives by breeching their sacred sites in order to discover scientific relics of a long forgotten time. The thing is, even if I'd found the artifacts, they would have certainly been unusable do to their age and wear. However, the governor seemed genuinely charmed by my enthusiasm and saw instead the possibility to establish a relationship between Humans and the Denepheans. So she gave me a reasonable credit and a small shuttle adapted to explore the Sea of Fire, telling me to be careful."

"Then I came north alone, and I looked along the shore of the sea aflame until I discovered this place. I went down and I thought it was a wonderful knowledge mausoleum of Ancients Denepheans." The ravaged face Shiho brightened a moment by her passion for science as she continued.

"I managed to decipher certain entries here, and I learned snippets of it's history. I learned that a ten thousand years ago, probably more, the Denepheans had been a powerful civilization, larger than that of earth today. They had managed to solve many problems that have puzzled our physicists. They had perfect knowledge of the intra-atomic. They had even been able to develop a way to make the matter really immaterial by creating a leap in atomic frequency vibration, which allowed any material to freely intermingle with another material as if it didn't exist. They had used this method of immateriality to explore the bowels of the planet. Their biologists also found a method to cause de-evolution at will which allowed them to study the past evolution of their race and all other races. The ancients had done all these things, but apparently this has not prevented a civil war from breaking out within their cities. It was conducted with such ferocity that that it inevitably led the great civilization to ruin. And while the Ancients became a semi-civilized tribes wandering in the ruins of ancient cities, some others, holders of ancient scientific knowledge, thought to preserve the greatness of their race Hoping that one day, their people would forget the wars and return to a peaceful civilization, these few Ancients gathered all their scientific knowledge and all the tools they could recover in a secret cave, so that they might not be lost forever."

A deep and bitter emotion flashed across Shiho's tormented face as the woman continued. "As I said, I learned by translating some inscriptions in this cave, and going through the computer archives they left. You can not imagine my joy when I saw everything was in good condition, and that I had managed to adapt our technology to theirs. I realized that it was a wonderful mine of scientific secrets, and that a proper authority needed to be alerted to ensure the knowledge did not fall into the wrong hands. So I wrote a report on my findings to Governor Eiri as promised. I had hoped that the governor would come here soon. But two nights later, while I was sleeping here, I woke up tied and blindfolded. Someone had intercepted my report and had come here to steal the scientific powers I'd spoken of. And that person forced me to tell him everything I had learned of. I have learned the secret of immateriality. He once used to get itself immaterial. He also learned the secret of de-evolution species and grabbed one of the instruments that degenerates its victims. I don't know the man's identity, but he calls himself the "Space Emperor", and he's returned several times since. Each time, he's forced me to provide him with more and more secrets of the Ancients under the threat of death. Whenever he leaves, he drugs me, locking the door so I cannot escape in his absence."

Shiho's eyes were burning in a very understandable hatred, especially after Captain Keiichi has explained to the young archaeologist the gravity of the situation.

"Can not you stop him in any way, Captain?"

"Not until I can remove the immateriality that protects him from any attack," said Keiichi. "That's why I came here, looking for a way to do it. Can you tell me its secret?" He asked nervously.

Before Shiho could reply, the door to the room began closing. Keiichi, Skuld and Shiho barely had time to see the hidden face of the Emperor. Immediately Skuld raced fir the door, grabbing it and trying to prevent the door from closing. For a moment she and seemed to achieve it, but even with her strength, the mechanism was too powerful.

Behind the door, the Emperor's voice was heard.

"There are 5 hours and 40 minutes before the general attack. This room will be bombed. You will await here." He said before leaving.

Soon after, the Emperor spoke to the head of government: the President Sayoko. The transmission could be heard in the "Space Goddess".

"This message is addressed to the President of the Interstellar Government. It was sent by the Space Emperor. I hold in my hands the lives of billions of men and woman that live in this part of the galaxy and the wealth of many rare metals within the moons as well. If the President wishes to save them all, she must agree to my conditions and leave me the position of president. I hold among my hostages, Governor Eiri, the Colonel Chihiro and Captain Keiichi."

President Sayoko as she heard Captain Keiichi's name listed amongst the hostages. He was her only hope to end this catastrophic situation and avoid an interstellar war. If he'd fallen into the hands of the Emperor, many people would be killed in the war, as it was unthinkable to hand over the key to galactic power to a masked tyrant. In any event, even if Sayoko had, no one in the state would obey this individual.

"Oh no, not Captain Keiichi." Belldandy said frightened.

"How could he have captured the Captain?" Sen said angrily.

"Skuld was with him. She should have protected him." Urd said with annoyance.

Even mini Banpei and Sigel were arguing.

Only Megumi kept her composure. "The Space Emperor is far too confident. Urd, let's see the molten lava falls." She said.

Meanwhile, the Captain and Skuld were working together. In the hopes of forcing the door open, however they could not so much as scratch it, even with their weapons fully charged. Keiichi had initially planned to remove the safety of his weapon and use it as an explosive rather than a gun, but he estimated that the resulting explosion would not be sufficient to destroy the door, instead simply killing everyone trapped within.

"No, you will not get anywhere. The metal of the door is unassailable. If we want to get out of here we will have to find another method." Shiho said.

"If Urd was actually intelligent, she'd find us by following our trail in a matter of hours," Skuld said.

"No, the "Space Goddess" won't fit in the cave. It is much too big. In addition, it will take too long to go for help. By then, the attack will begin and you and I will be dead." Keiichi said before turning to Shiho.

"Do you know if there are any more of the devices that vibrate atoms?" He asked, though he doubted he'd receive a positive response.

He was wrong.

"Yes, there still remains one in stock." Said Shiho, indicating to a shelf that held several alien devices on it.

"Why didn't you mention this earlier? It would be a breeze to simply pass through the door while fitted with this equipment." Captain Keiichi said in astonishment.

"Oh, I know that very well, yes. However there are two problems. The first is that this device is incomplete. It's missing a component that allows the wearer to breathe when out of phase. The Emperor has the other device hidden under his cloak. Of course one could stop breathing for the few seconds it takes to cross through the door, however that leads to the second problem. These devices have been dormant for a long time, and thus have no energy to work."

Keiichi thought for a moment. The conclusion made him laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH."

"I don't see what's so funny." Shiho said with astonishment.

"No, but it is a very good joke! Need to breath? No energy? You and the Space Emperor have not thought about Skuld!" Keiichi explained.

"Skuld?" Shiho asked, watching the silver robot girl.

Then she understood.

"Yes of course, I'm so stupid. A robot does not need to breathe, and she has a lot of energy in her battery." the scientist said, smiling.

"Good. You understood. Hurry up and attach the device to Skuld's arm."

"What? Wait, if ever this device does not work very well, I do not want to become a "ghost robot" for eternity!"

Meanwhile, Colonel Chihiro was preparing for the upcoming battle. Though it may have been a lost cause, she was a soldier, and each soldier had a duty to fulfill, in the end. Silently she watched the satellite approach the planet's capital, the Emperor threatening to unleash his ship armada at any moment.

"You have only 2 hours and 47 minutes to surrender. Then the general attack will be triggered, and you will all be destroyed," said the Emperor.

The device was installed and activated on Skuld. Keiichi put his arm through his sister's robotic components. "You see? It works perfectly, you have nothing to fear." The man said encouragingly. "Come on now, get us out of here."

Despite her extremely wide knowledge, becoming a ghost and passing through a doorway was a new experience for Skuld. It was like entering another universe, with a lot of little light like moving stars.

"I did it. I wish Urd was here to see this." Passing through the door, Skuld deactivated the device and opened the door.

Shortly after, Captain Keiichi was back aboard the "Space Goddess" with Skuld and Shiho.

The period of grace granted by the Space Emperor had just passed. "I order every ship to attack the capital." ordered the Emperor.

A moment later, thousands of small vessels emerged from the giant meteor and swooped to attack the capital. They would arrive in less than thirty minutes. Then would come the massacre.

"That's it, the general attack has started. Skuld, have you had time to do what I asked of you?" asked Captain Keiichi.

"Yes, but this system is hardly compatible with our devices. We can only use it four, maybe five times." Answered the robot girl.

"Just once will suffice. Now, forward!" Keiichi ordered while opening a communication channel to the governor's headquarters. "This is Captain Keiichi. We are preparing to attack the enemy", he said to Eiri and Chihiro.

"It's suicide. The "Space Goddess" may be a powerful ship, but even she can't fight an entire invasion fleet." Stammered Eiri.

"Rest assured. The Captain is not a suicidal madman. He surely has something unpredictable up his sleeve." Chihiro smiled confidently.

On Earth, President Sayoko and her assistant Sora, watched the situation anxiously, while General Lind prepared the army for battle. If Captain Keiichi failed, when the Space Emperor was finished with Deneph, he would surely target Earth next. The entire fleet was mobilized and on standby.

"We are all counting on you Captain," said Sayoko staring at her screen.

"Less than twenty minutes," added Sora.

The "Space Goddess" sped right for the giant meteor.

"An enemy ship is approaching us, Majesty."

"Rest assured, it cannot be Captain Keiichi. FIRE AT WILL." Ordered the Space Emperor.

All defense batteries fired on the "Space Goddess". Though the ship was one of the most sophisticated in the galaxy, even it could not withstand such an attack. It was like a butterfly gliding into a lava pit.

The shooting was coming from everywhere. The target literally could not be seen through the light of thousands of proton cannons firing from above. After a few minutes, the Emperor ordered a cease fire to see the extent of damage to the spaceship.

He looked on in shock behind his mask…The "Space Goddess" was completely intact.

The explanation for this small miracle was actually very simple. Now that the Captain had obtained a device capable of vibrating atoms, he had ordered Skuld to adapt its technology to the "Space Goddess".

For humans, such a feat would have required at least several weeks worth of work, but for Skuld, disassembling a machine, understanding its inner mechanisms, and adapting them to the ship was a mere formality. Two hours were more than enough for her.

And now, the "Space Goddess", completely intact and intangible, entered inside the satellite, totally indifferent to the defense systems or the rock walls. The ship came to rest in the center of a large hanger with several attack shuttles. The place was not yet empty, and hundreds of Denepheans appeared to fight the intruders.

"Megumi, I have a huge favor to ask you." Said the Captain.

"What?" Asked the brain.

"If we fail, I'm asking you to fire the "Space Goddess" proton cannon inside the satellite. Once the meteor is destroyed, the invasion fleet will have no fallback base. Their ships will very quickly run out of energy. So if we cannot save Deneph, we can at least prevent a war from spreading to Earth. This is a last resort tactic. None of us will survive if we use the Proton Cannon in this satellite 9. I know this is a huge sacrifice I'm asking of you, but under the circumstances I feel it is necessary." Keiichi said.

"You can count on me. If you fail, I would not have much of my future anyway. At least I know that I would not suffer, since I have no nerves with which to feel pain." Replied the Captain's adopted sister.

"Good. Now to get to the Space Emperor." Said Keiichi, leaving the ship and followed by his sisters and Belldandy.

The Space Emperor came through the floor in front of his troops. He did not understand how Keiichi had survived, or how he had managed to get so far, but he knew he had to stop him now. Confident in the invulnerability provided by the device hidden in his belt, he would eliminate Captain Keiichi and his crew himself, before his troops.

"So you finally came to be destroyed." he said to his enemy.

"No, it's to neutralize you and stop the Denepheans assault, that's why I'm here. We will fight against each other, and this time I will defeat you." Said Keiichi.

"I think you're dreaming again. You can't even touch me, so how are you going to fight me?" Asked the Emperor with a mocking tone.

"LIKE THIS !" Yelled the Captain Keiichi, rotating the button of atomic vibrator he wore on his belt.

FLASHBACK ON

Keiichi had a conversation with Shiho.

"How? You're going to use the device on yourself?" Asked Shiho.

"Yes, to successfully beat the Emperor."

"But, you're not a robot or a form of modified biological life. You won't be able to breathe and you will asphyxiate."

"Well I would stop breathing for a minute, which is enough time to grab the device from the Emperor and take it away. Then he will be easy to capture." Keiichi explained.

"Why not give the unit to Urd or Skuld? Either one of them would make short work of the Emperor and they don't need to breathe. It would be a much safer way," suggested Shiho.

"I thought about it, but it's not that simple. The real goal is not just to capture the Emperor, but to stop the attack of the Denepheans. For that I have to defeat them psychologically. Defeating the Emperor is the best way, and it will have a greater impact if he is defeated by a human."

"So let Urd take your appearance. She will quickly defeat the Emperor and the Denepheans will not see the illusion."

"Too risky. Urd would surely succeed, but if she is unmasked, it will be a disaster. I can not take this risk. It must be me who does it."

"Then I wish you luck Captain." Shiho concludes.

FLASHBACK OFF

Behind his mask, a look of terror crossed the Emperor's face, as he realized the Captain could now strike him.

As the Captain threw himself on the Emperor, a red spark appeared as the two 'out of phase' individuals touched. Keiichi was able to throw down the Emperor and had almost immediately succeeded in reaching his belt. Almost. While the Captain was on him, the Emperor managed to push him with a foot strike in the chest.

The Denepheans were in shock. Their seemingly invulnerable Emperor was staggering under each attack, although he managed to defend himself with an unnatural strength and terrible talent, as though he was a demon.

Urd and Skuld attempted to help their brother, but they could touch neither him nor the Emperor. They were irritated by their own impotence. All they could do was monitor the Denepheans, ensuring that none of them would shoot at them. Even with the two of them together though they could not overcome so many soldiers. Moreover Belldandy would surely die very quickly in battle, and so they remained on their guard, waiting for the slightest opportunity to aid their brother.

Belldandy for her part, did not care about the threat the Denepheans provided. She watched the Captain fighting heroically against the Space Emperor, hoping he would come to defeat him before succumbing to lack of air. Though no stranger to strong emotions, the woman could never in her life recall a time she'd ever been so scared. Not for herself, though she knew that her fate would be sealed if Keiichi lost, but for the life of the Captain himself.

Keiichi and the Emperor fought on equal terms but time was against Keiichi, who would not last very long time without breath. It was then that the Emperor tried a sneaky but ingenious maneuver. He disappeared into the floor, only to rise up behind the Captain, grabbing his feet and yanking him off balance. Keiichi fell to the floor, and the Emperor was upon him, pummeling him with punches.

The assault was great enough that Keiichi almost fell unconscious. However adrenaline kept his cognate. If he fainted in his intangible condition, no one could save him because no one could touch him. He would die of asphyxiation and be reduced to a ghost forever.

Meanwhile, the assault troops had entered the atmosphere of the planet. They would begin firing in minutes. One of the first targets was the headquarters of the governor where Eiri and Chihiro were. "We are entering the atmosphere of the planet. We will attack the objectives within 10 minutes." Instructed the assault force commander.

With Keiichi weakening from lack of air, the Emperor had clearly gained the upper hand. The Denepheans were delighted, for they saw the oncoming victory as symbolic of the ancestors against the greatest hero of the enemy Humans.

"He won't last much longer without breath." worried Urd.

The Emperor moved behind Keiichi in an attempt to hold him down, pressing his weight against the Captain. However, this was a fatal error. He was so close that Keiichi, despite being on the edge of unconsciousness, grabbed the belt and pulled the Emperor, causing him to become solid. His goal reached, Keiichi immediately deactivated the device from his belt and took a long, laborious, breath.

The incividual drew his Proton pistol to kill the Captain but did not have time to use it. Skuld and Urd were already on him, immobilizing him on the ground. The Emperor tried to struggle, but it was futile against Urd's flexibility and Skuld's strength, each of which was ten times more than necessary to neutralize the ennemy.

Belldandy approached, placing her hand on the Emperor's mask and removing it, revealing the face beneath.

"MISS HALBURN!" Belldandy cried, astonished.

"The Space Emperor is an Human woman?!" Reemook stammered, stunned.

"But I thought she had already devolved!" Urd cried.

"I guess in fact, it was a trick. She must have placed an ape-woman in her quarters to make it look like it was her. She knew it would take days for the DNA to be examined. By then the war would have begun and nobody could reach her. She was disguised as a man to better hide herself and convinced the Denepheans to fight for her. They would have been reluctant if they knew that their "Living Ancient" was a woman." Keiichi explained before turning to Denepheans, completely disoriented.

Valerie Halburn remained on her knees, having lost all will to fight. She knew that her troops would no longer obey her and that she had lost. However, she had a small thing to say.

"Halval. My name is Halval. No Halburn Valérie." Declared the defeated "Empress".

Keiichi did not answer. Given the situation, the "real" name of Valerie Halburn, Halval, and the reasons for which she had hidden it, did not matter.

"So you see that you have been deceived," said Captain Keiichi to the Denepheans before adding, "This is an Human, not one of your ancestors. She is a ruthless and ambitious woman who hoped to seize the planet Deneph and then the rest of the galaxy by using you. She mocks your ancient civilization and its past glory, only interested in her own personal gain. Stop the attack. This bloodshed is unnecessary and meaningless now."

Reemook was smart. He agreed with Keiichi. They could continue the fight against Humans but was it really useful? Although the Emperor was an impostor, she had built them a powerful army and the means to enforce order on their planet. She'd provided them the means to rebuild their ancient civilization. A war against humanity would not allow them to profit or flourish. Peace was the better option.

The attack was halted.

On Deneph, particularly in Jovopolis, all Humans released a sigh of relief on seeing the enemy ships turn back and return to the giant meteor from which they came.

The war did not take place and Denepheans began to rebuild their civilization; with their new capital installed on Satellite 9. Thanks the medicine developed by Professor Megumi, all the victims of the devolution device were treated and returned to normal.

His mission completed, Captain Keiichi returned inside his secret base on the moon with his sisters after saying his goodbyes.

"Bell, protect and help Sen, please."

"Yes. I'll take care of him and teach him what it takes to become a man like you. But..." Belldandy trailed off.

"Yes Bell?"

"But when will we have the great pleasure of seeing you again Captain Keiichi? I regret that you did not stay with us, or allow us to accompany you. I'd like to be at your side forever, I think."

"We will meet again soon. I'll come visit you, I promise," replied the Captain, who, after all, was still a young man in love with a young woman.

Then the ship took off.

 _The Captain Keiichi knows that there will always be tyrants and monsters to fight in space. But he also knows that he had just won one more fight...Until the next._

To be continued…..


	5. Captain Keiichi's challenge

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of TheManTimeForgotI therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.

 **05) Captain Keiichi's challenge.  
**

Somewhere, in the depths of space...

A being sits down in front of a powerful television transmitter in a strange room, surrounded by fire and water. The being could have been an Earthling, a Romacean, a Oranean, or S'lirths'e or native from many other planets. It was impossible to say which, because his whole body was concealed by a kind of black suit with a purple cape. Even his head was concealed by a metal helmet, similar to a ancient knight, with the exception of two holes for the eyes. The being could see, but his face could not be seen. He reached the control panel of the large TV and was settled on a secret frequency wave. The generator was emitting furious groans.

The being had a thought in himself, "The one who will control the Gravium ore, will control the galaxy."

A short physics course is required. Gravium is a metal with the atomic number 241 in the periodic table of elements (or Mendeleiev periodic table). To put it simply, everything that exists in the universe is composed of atoms which make up all matter: the earth, the stars, the machines etc. Each atoms in the table in numbered. The more atoms they have, the "heavier" they are, and the higher their atomic number is. Hydrogen is the lightest, so it carries the atomic number 1. The maximum atomic number is impossible to determine because the weight of an atom depends on the number of neutrons/protons which the composed, yet one can always add more of each, while we cannot drop below 1 (therefore no atoms are lighter than hydrogen).

However, the heavier an atom is, the more they are unstable, that is to say more than they tend to disperse into energy. Uranium, plutonium for instance, are so heavy that they can be broken "easily" and release their energy. This is the principle of nuclear fission.

After a moment, the atoms are so heavy that they disperse all alone in a few tenths of seconds becoming pure energy. We observe them simply in the "atom smashing" done in particle accelerators.

All this brings us to the Gravium. It is a super heavy atom, yet is stable, it does not dissipate. However this state of fact gives the element two extraordinary properties.

The first: despite the enormous energy it contains, it emits very little radiation (all atoms emit a degree more or less strong of radioactivity).

Its second feature, the one which makes it so fantastic, is that with the appropriate technology, it allows the control over any objects gravitational field. Therefore, it is this ore which allows different civilizations to explore space, as well as environments where the gravity varies to great extremes.

In the 21th century, its existence is still unknown because this metal is far too 'heavy' to be able to form in the course of the nuclear reactions which have shaped the planet Earth, therefore, does not exist on our planet, however, it would be discovered on Mercury by the space explorer " Mark Carew" during the mission "Wing of Icarus" in 2127.

The problem is the scarcity of the ore. There exist only five mines known in the galaxy. Two are under control of humanity. The other three belong to various extraterrestrial species who share in the framework of their space explorations. Of course, given its rarity and its importance, the Gravium is the object of all sorts of political and economic manoeuvering, and the mines themselves are fortified installations; the best protected in the galaxy. A true armada for each of them.

The being pressed a button on the control panel and then he spoke to the microphone behind the visio-screen. "Wrecker, call ship number one."

A moment later a man with a grey headset and a black Visor was made manifest.

"Ship number one. Commander here. What are your instructions?" the commander said, a being with pink skin with a face that was vaguely serpentine and a prominent skull covered with red crusts.

"You are at the designated position?" asked the hissing voice of the man who called himself "Wrecker".

"Yes, sir, we are flying off Sigoon now."

"Good, you will strike at exactly ten o'clock, galactic time."

Wrecker pushed another button. "Ship Two!"

The interior of another spaceship flashed into the screen. Its commander was Oranean.

"Ship Two reporting, sir," the Oranean said. "We are progressing towards the Oranea Moon on schedule."

"Strike at exactly ten, galactic time," ordered Wrecker's sibilant voice.

Another button was pressed. "Ship Three!"

A hulking Romacean, as oddly strange in appearance as the other two ship commanders, reported from the third ship. "Ship Three off Kalem, sir. We are ready to descend and blast the stockade at any moment."

"Blast at ten, galactic time," Wrecker ordered.

Then the black-veiled figure of mystery touched the switch that called across the Solar System to a fourth spaceship.

A big green Denephean, his large, circular dark eyes hollowly solemn, answered in thick, jerky accents from the fourth craft. "Ship Four, sir. We are approaching Earth's Moon."

Wrecker's dark figure tensed.

"The mission that I entrust you is the most important for following the plan. I want you to capture the only being which can block the road, Captain Keiichi. Once under control, the rest will be only a formality. I convey to you the details of the plan for his capture. You will take action in 10 hours exactly." He said.

Wrecker touched a larger switch. The visio-screen went dark, and the snarling whine of generators sank and died. The dark-veiled figure of mystery hunched, brooding.

"The plan can't fail, now," he told himself. "The one man who might spoil it will be in our power. The System, reeling under this blow, will call to him for help as usual. But he won't answer this time. Nobody will answer." Wrecker's dark form stiffened.

About 10 hours later, the three mines of Gravium under alien control were being attacked. Everything went very quickly.

On Sigoon I...

The hot side of the planet Sigoon I, the closest planet to the sun of Sigoon planetary system, sizzled under the scorching heat of the sun that seemed to fill half the brassy sky. That flaming orb, only thirty-six million miles away, kept this side of the planet at a temperature above the melting point of most metals! Yet there were Sigooneans at one spot in this hottest place in the 13 worlds of Sigoon solar system. Upon the seared, blackened rock-plain of the hot side stood the clustered smelters, barracks, offices and open rock workings of one of the galaxy's five Gravium mines. This mine was protected from the fearful heat that otherwise would instantly slay all here. From a towering radiator-mechanism arched a domelike "Halo" of blue force, a screen of vibrations that barred terrific solar radiance. A young Sigoonean metallurgist came out of the laboratories and glanced up at the colossal orb flaming overhead. He speculated, for the thousandth time, what would happen if the "halo" failed and the solar heat penetrated.

"Thank the gods of space the Halo radiator is failure-proof." he told himself.

"Otherwise there'd be no mine here. Even as it is, Gravium is the only thing that would draw Sigoonean men to this place."

The young metallurgist glanced at his watch. "Ten o'clock, galactic time! I'd better be getting back to work" He stiffened suddenly.

A black space-cruiser was diving down out of the brassy sky. It roared over the halo shrouded mine, and a small black object dropped from the cruiser toward the Halo radiator. Next moment, with a roar and flash of white fire, the big radiator mechanism exploded into fragments.

"A proton bomb!" yelled the Sigoonean. "This means death for…"

Even as he realized the imminence of death, he died. The fearful solar heat, striking the little mine-settlement as its screen of protective vibrations was destroyed, reducing that young Sigoonean's body to a charred black cinder instantaneously. Within ten minutes, every trace of the Sigoon Gravium mines and its workers had been completely destroyed by the terrific solar heat.

On the Oranea moon...

It was the night in the equatorial desert of Oranean principal moon. The stars shone brilliantly in the chill, clear air, and the two meteor-like moons, the "Space Goddesses", shed a pale radiance as they sailed across the heavens. That light illuminated the busy mine of the Oranean Gravium Company. For here on Oranean moon, too, was mined a small quantity of the precious ore that made life in other planet possible.

Two Oranean laborers came out of a tunnel for a breath of air. The fur of their faces was wet, they breathed in the chill night air gratefully. It was two minutes before ten o'clock, galactic time.

"What's that up there, Arraj?" the younger Oranean asked, pointing up.

The older man looked. Up there against the superbly blazing Milky Way, a tiny black spot was growing.

"Looks like a meteor coming this way," he said quickly. "But it must be a big one…."

"Look, Arraj, it is a meteor!" cried the younger Oranean excitedly. "And there's a ship guiding it!"

The two stared for a moment at the incredible spectacle. That expanding black spot was clearly a giant meteor, rushing now at tremendous speed toward the Moon. And close beside the booming meteor rushed a dark spaceship, playing rays upon the great mass. The ship was propelling the meteor toward the moon.

"That meteor's going to strike here!" yelled the young Oranean wildly. "That ship's deliberately guiding it to hit the mines!"

The great meteor was rushing straight down toward them, looming larger and larger. The ship that had guided it until the last moment was now rocketing back out to space. The younger of the two Oranean tried to scream an alarm as the monstrous mass darted down. He could utter no sound; fear gripped him.

Then the giant meteor struck. The concussion shook the lonely Oranean moon desert for leagues. And when the quaking shudder of the moon ceased, the Gravium mines had disappeared. The impact of the great meteor had made that whole region a fusing, superheated wreck of shattered rock.

On Kalem...

Dawn was breaking over the southern part of Kalem, the 12th planet of Romacean system. Low on the northern horizon, over the great plains which cover most of this giant, prairie-world, the stupendous arc of the Rings glittered less brightly against the star-studded sky.

Down low in one of the southern valleys of Kalem, the rising Sun gleamed off the white cement buildings and raw rock pits of the Gravium workings. For here, too, was mined some of the precious Gravium vital to the Galaxy. Around the whole Gravium mine towered a stockade of atomic flame. Atomic projectors set close together formed a ring whose unceasing jets of flame alone kept out the brown, creeping monsters that could be glimpsed outside.

Those brown, great crawling things were the dreaded Silica, strange beings composed of inorganic compounds with a siliceous base. They had each eyes at the extremity of two tentacles of their skull. Like all siliceous life of this planet, they ate metal, and would attack any place to satisfy their avid craving. The exposed veins of Gravium in the workings, the metal of the machines here, were a constant lure to the Silicae. Always, they hungrily circled the stockade of flame.

The tall, blue-skinned Romacean engineer who came out of his cabin, rubbing sleep from his eyes, stared distastefully at the crawling brown monsters visible outside the flame-fence.

"Damned vermin," he muttered disgustedly. "I'm tired looking at them. What I need are some bright lights and pretty girls."

It was ten o'clock Galactic time. The engineer started toward the barracks to rouse his men for the day-shift. Suddenly he stopped and peered upward.

"What the Korarak…" ("Korarak" is a sort of "devil" in Romacean belief).

A black spaceship was diving toward the Gravium mines. From it darted a powerful atom-beam that struck and demolished the atomic projectors of a whole sector of the stockade. That whole part of the flame-fence died. The ship darted up and away with a thunder of rocket-tubes. The Romacean engineer, his face ghastly, pitched toward the alarm-bell control.

"All out, the stockade's broken!" he yelled, as he sent the alarms ringing.

Half-awakened men poured out of the buildings. But already, through the gap in the flame-fence, a horde of the Silicae was pouring in!

Two hours later, the monstrous Silicae flowed leisurely away. The cement buildings remained, and the broken bodies of dead men. But every trace of metal was gone, eaten by the monsters. The machinery, the tools, the scraps of metal on the persons of the men, and even the Gravium in the open workings all had been ingested by the strange creatures. The Romacean Gravium source had been wiped out.

On the Earth moon...

Brilliant sunlight bathed the side of the moon that faced Earth. In the flood of light, the lunar peaks and craters rose stark and bare, the lunar plains stretched in deathly desolation. At only one place was there movement on this forbidding, barren globe.

That place was in the mighty mountain-ring of Tycho crater. A black spaceship had landed stealthily in the jagged peaks of the crater. A score of space-suited men, each wearing on his breast his flat gravitation-equalizer, were cautiously moving out onto the flat, white rock plain of the great crater. The leader, a big Denephean whose yellow eyes looked oddly hollow and strange inside his glassite helmet, stopped suddenly and pointed toward a big glassite window set in the crater-plain ahead.

"That's the place!" muttered the Jovian to his men on his suit-phone. "That's where they live, Captain Keiichi and his sisters!"

"Do we attack at once?" asked one of the men.

"No, Wrecker said to wait until the girls have gone on their regular trip to some laboratory they have on the other side," the Denephean said. "There they go now! Get down, all of you!"

Out of an underground hangar, a tear-drop shaped little ship was rising. It zoomed in a streak of fire across the peaks of Tycho crater.

"Now, Captain Keiichi's alone!" the Denephean leader exclaimed. He looked at his watch. "And it's ten, now."

He unhooked a gun like weapon from his belt and aimed it at the glassite window ahead. As he pulled trigger of the instrument he muttered tensely: "This will get Captain Keiichi!"

While the Galaxy was facing one of the most serious perils that it had never seen up to now, on the Moon was Captain Keiichi was in full discussion with Colonel Chihiro. He was still unaware of the crisis and the immediate danger that was reigning.

"How? Valerie Halburn, sorry, I want tell Halval has escaped?" The Captain incredulously asked.

"Escaped, or removed. In any case, she has disappeared." Chihiro answered.

"But how is this possible? The high security prisons of Kelaburs have the best guards and fortifications in the Galaxy; nobody has ever escaped. And in the case of Halval, I imagine that the surveillance had been further strengthened. "

"Currently in effect. She was at the prison canteen, when all the lights went out. Of course, the emergency generators are put on the market, but in vain. Even the torches have refused to operate. When the light finally returned and that all female prisoners had been summoned gathered to see if they were all there, she was gone. "

"You say that even the torches went out?"

"It is a strange thing, I would say even extraordinary or simply impossible. After examination of the installations, everything worked, and thanks to the detectors, it has been able to estimate that the appliances had indeed works normally even the torches, but the light refused to disseminate, as if 'sucked in' by the darkness. We think that she might have concealed a device theorized by veteran Denephean scientists. A 'black photon transmitter' of waves particles which cancels out conventional photons and could therefore "extinguish" all light in the area. This theory is the most plausible, even if it is completely ludicrous. The black photon is scientifically impossible, said by the same experts. It's an object which would have an atomic weight of less than 0. That simply can't be. "

"I am entirely in agreement with that last note. Dark matter, or dark energy, its existence has been agreed upon and known for centuries. Black Photons? Absurd." Keiichi said before continuing. "However, a Denephean device which we don't have any prior knowledge of... this is the most reasonable conclusion. Have you talked to Shiho? She's the expert for this kind of thing."

"Yes, absolutely. However, she didn't have any explanation for it either. Nothing among the devices that Denepheans or the writings translated up to present allow anyone to explain what happened. We're still continuing the excavations and the translations, however it will take some years yet before we are finished. The detectors...well, they have simply recorded the ultra-sounds. Thus, it is thought that Halval had a sort of echolocation machine and that's how she has been able to escape without anything seeing her." Chihiro explained.

"And this machine? It certainly hasn't been introduced in her cell, and she hasn't been issuing the echolocation herself. She's a human, not a "bat-girl"." Keiichi said.

"The corrupt guards perhaps?" Chihiro suggested.

"I know the security procedures of Kelaburs. A number of 'inmates' are located down there, thanks to me. The rotation system of guards and their assignments are changed continuously, precisely to avoid this kind of possibility. Therefore, the mystery remains for the moment. "

At that moment, a signal sounds on the Colonel's communicator.

"Sorry, Captain. There must be an emergency. I would remind you later if I have any new information." Chihiro said before promptly turning off the visio-screen.

"Time for me to be getting back to work, instead of wool-gathering," Keiichi told himself. "Now, if I used a higher frequency beam in this projector, would it…"

He was turning toward the projector, as he spoke. But he suddenly stopped, as a paralyzing force had struck him. He slumped to the laboratory floor like a dead man.

"Something's blocking off all the electric nerve-currents in my body!" the thought flashed through Keiichi's mind. "This is no accident, someone's causing this…."

He made a superhuman mental effort to move. If he could just get to a cabinet across the laboratory, he could use the instruments in it to neutralize this paralyzing force. But he was helpless, unable to stir a finger. He lay prone, and in a moment, he heard men entering the air-lock outer door of the sub-lunar dwelling.

"Ha ha! Even the 'famous' Captain Keiichi cannot resist a beam on a paralytic frequency." the leader Denephean mocked while Keiichi was helplessly lying on the ground.

Keiichi waited grimly. Into the laboratory cautiously came a band of space-suited men.

"Put a space-suit on him," the Denephean was ordering. "He mustn't die as we take him to the ship. Wrecker's orders!"

"Who is Wrecker? Why he ordered you to do this?"

The Denephean laughed hollowly. "You'll meet Wrecker soon, Captain Keiichi. You've ruined a lot of schemes, but you won't ruin his. He's too smart, he struck at you first!"

Keiichi's eyes narrowed. There was something strange about this Denephean and his men. Their set expressions, and hollow eyes... Inwardly, Keiichi was seething.

Whoever Wrecker was, he was the first who had ever dared made a deliberate attack on Captain Keiichi's home. It was a challenge to Captain Keiichi, a challenge the boy grimly accepted.

Two hours later on Earth, the President, Sayoko Mishima, was near the point of collapse. This morning, she thought that the case of 'the Space Emperor', the most serious crisis in her mandate, was completed as well. Now with the attack of the mines of Gravium, the crisis on Deneph resembled a simple annoyance.

Sayoko didn't see the end of the problems that this disaster was. The two mines under the control of Earth were intact for the moment. On the other hand, the extraterrestrial delegates present in the neighborhoods of the presidency were in the process of organizing a meeting of emergency. The accusations of an "earthling conspiracy, aimed to take control of the Gravium production and eradicate the peoples of the other planets" were already were beginning to accumulate. With it, the threat of interstellar war and the assault of the two earth mines would follow. In the emergency, General Lind had ordered that the defenses around the strategic reserves of Gravium of each planet of the Terran federation, as well as around the two mines still intact, should be doubled. However, she doubted that this would serve anything. The space fleets had proved powerless to prevent attacks. They were…. paralyzed. Everything was going well, and then the communications, weapons systems, navigation, propulsion of the three fleets had stopped operating during the few minutes that the attack had lasted.

"Madam President, I have just learned that three of the Gravium mines were destroyed." said Sora Hasegawa, the assistant of Sayoko.

"But who was able to do that? And why? If the production of the ore which allows us to control the gravity of ships and space stations stopped, we would no longer be able to live in space!" Sayoko asked herself.

"According to the information, the other two mines on Mercury and Bama have suffered no damage." Sora added.

"For the moment, yes. The Romaceans, the Oraneans and Sigooneans already accusing me. They even speak of gathering a common fleet to attack the mines in question, as well as Earth. I succeeded in stopping them for the moment, but they have required guarantees of my hand and the sharing of the ore until the crisis is over," Sayoko cried with a sigh.

"Yes, a fine decision ma'am." Sora said.

"You read my thoughts... It looks to be a job for him in the meantime." the President replied as she opened the emergency channel to request the assistance of Captain Keiichi.

This time however, the call was heard by no one.

Keiichi had been grabbed, still bound and helpless, in his space-suit. Now his captors carried him out of the lunar laboratory and across Tycho crater to a black ship hidden in the peaks.

Captain Keiichi was tossed into a small supply-room off the main corridor of the ship. And a tall, stringy, hairy face Oranean stood guard over him with a drawn atom-pistol.

The boy felt the ship lurch upward with the roar of rockets, then hurtle off through space. He squirmed around to look through the window. The ship was flying away from the moon and Earth, and heading almost straight toward the blazing orb of the sun.

Keiichi was shaking his members to see if he could break free. In the room where he was locked up, was a human wearing a black hood that left only his eyes and nose visible, like a ninja mask.

"Remain quiet, or otherwise I'll shoot your knee" he said firmly, pointing his gun toward the Captain.

At this moment, Skuld, Urd, and Megumi were returned to their main house, still unaware of the abduction of their brother, but when they found a recorder placed in the point of entry, and no trace of Keiichi, they listened to the recording, revealing their intention.

"We have captured your Captain. Don't try to follow us if you want to have a chance to see him alive."

"What's all this about?" screamed Urd in anger.

"I don't know, but we need act with great caution." Megumi answered.

"We have to free big brother!" Adds Skuld, who had no intention of obeying the orders of the kidnappers.

In the office of the presidency, Belldandy, who left Deneph a few days ago to come on Earth at this precise moment, had been summoned here, in emergency. Sayoko, who had learned of the existence of the girl and her role in the events of Deneph following the reports which had been given to her, she hoped that Ms. Belldandy Landore would perhaps know where the Captain was at this time. She thought that her presence on Earth had a connection. Sayoko knows how to read between the lines of the reports and had well soon understood that this girl and the Captain were friends, if not more. "A romantic partner perhaps..." She had envisioned without too much confidence. It was a faint hope but in the urgency of the situation, she had to try. Of course, Sayoko had also ordered to General Lind to do what she could on her side to face the crisis, but the assistance of Keiichi would not go unwanted.

Belldandy was surprised to have been convened by the President in person. She was only a simple interstellar agent of the secret service, not a high ranking officer in the army.

She would not find the answer to this question, because at the moment where she arrived in Sayoko's office, the President had a call on her visio-screen. "Wrecker" then appeared.

"You're the President?" He asked bluntly.

"I am. Who are you? How did you get access to this channel?" Sayoko answered in a tone just as hostile as that of this interloper.

"Hijacking your computer systems is child's play for me. I'm speaking to you using the relay on Jupiter. I am Wrecker. It was I who destroyed the three mines on Kalem, Sigoon I, and the moon of Oranea. "

"What?!" Exclaimed Sayoko.

"I tell you now that I can destroy the two remaining mines on Bama and on Mercury whenever I like. It will all depend on what you decide to do." Wrecker adds.

"You dare threaten me?" Said the President.

"Threaten? Not even; you and your people you are far too insignificant in my eyes for me to lowered myself to threats. I am simply telling you the situation. If you do not want the other two mines destroyed as well, declare immediately that your government is dissolved. And give me all your power." Explained the individual headset on a tone... amused.

"Out of the question. Besides, I have taken all the necessary measures to protect these two mines." Sayoko argued.

Wrecker then broke out laughing.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! You can't be serious! You are going to do what? Doubling the fleets of vessels which stand guard? I'll hijack them as easily as the others. This should grab your attention."

The image on the screen of Sayoko changed. Now there was Captain Keiichi, restrained on a chair by handcuffs, placed before a large porthole where they could see the sun closing in as well as a few stars. The intense radiation increased the heat on his body, who was sweating and seemed to be suffering.

"I do not know your plans, but if you are intending on save Captain Keiichi, I advise you to quickly change them. Now, 'Madam President' you can see that you can do nothing at all? If the production of Gravium stops completely, the majority of human beings who are in the space are sentenced to a very slow end"

Sayoko, to his amazement and despite her concern, rejected the megalomaniac's terms. "I won't yield to your threats. You will never the govern the Terran federation."

"Very well, you have been warned. You and your people will simply die earlier than expected. I am going to destroy the last two mines. So much the worse for you." On this grim note, the conversation stopped.

Belldandy already left before talking with the president. She was definitely not aware of the attack of the mines or the capture of Captain five minutes earlier, but now she already had a plan of action in mind.

Sayoko did not prevent the young woman from leaving, the conversation that she wished to have with her could wait. She knew now where the captain was: a prisoner of the enemy.

The vessel or was a prisoner Keiichi hovered near a star. The abductors had chosen this place to be undetectable by conventional means and for the case, highly unlikely, that the captain has escaped. Only the hull of the ship prevented the heat of several thousand degrees to kill any life on the inside. It is at this time that the Denephean leader came into the cell of the captain.

"Your dear President of the Terran federation has had the pleasure to see you sweat before this porthole. She had the air of concern of your fate." He said he thee smiling.

"Why have I been abducted? What is the meaning of all this?" Asked Keiichi.

"With Wrecker, our leader, we destroyed three of the five mines of Gravium that exists in the galaxy."

"NO!" Said Keiichi, horrified by the implications.

"But if you try to escape Captain. And in fact, in the case where you do, you wouldn't get far. If you tried to get out of this vessel we can't find you; our detectors are not precise enough with the solar interference, but you shall be turned to ash in a few moments. Then it is for everyone's sake, especially yours, to stay calm. You re free to try and fight your way all alone through this vessel and its entire crew, if you are in the mood." Added the Denephean, still smiling.

While he was about to leave, the boy asked a question. "Wait. Tell me at least who this Wrecker is. I've never heard of him until today. "

"Hm? Oh I do not know. He appeared one day, and made a very attractive offer. He has become our leader and he is as powerful as you think he is. Holding up the fleets of defenses which protect the mines of Gravium is only a small part of his vision. For the rest you shall ask him yourself. He wished to see you shortly. Apparently he has plans for you."

The Denephean then took leave permanently, leaving Keiichi attached to its chair, with the custody of earlier for the monitor.

Keiichi looked at his situation and was considering all the possibilities when to his escape. Having Urd as his professor, he knew several ways to free himself of his handcuffs. It was the presence of the guard which was the problem. They wouldn't let Keiichi liberate himself without reacting. Therefore he should begin by neutralizing the guards. Which was going to be difficult since he was bound. Difficult, but not impossible. He had something for precisely this type of situation.

"Hey you." He said.

"Hum?" answered the man.

"Can you remove my watch? It's a bit irritating in the position."

"Your what?" Asked the guard, not knowing what a watch was. Nobody had worn watch for centuries. With all the electronics that people had on them now, starting with their personal communicator, the modern version of the mobile phone, wristwatches were unnecessary, and had been forgotten for a very long time. They fell into history, and weren't even in museums…. with the exception of one which was on the arm of the Captain.

Of course, the guards had searched Keiichi before tying him down. They had removed his communicator and his pistols as well as any kind of gadgets that he could have. However, none of them had paid attention to this watch, thinking it to be a simple decorative bracelet.

"My bracelet, the one with a small dial and needles. In this position it's too tight. Remove it please."

Of course, the guard was clever enough to suspect a trap. "You think that I will take off your handcuffs? Forget it. In any event I do not have the key." Replied the guard.

"I'm not trying to trick you. It's just that this bracelet hurts me. I am not asking that you loosen the handcuffs, but just that you remove my watch. Just a little effort of goodwill and I'll keep quiet. I promise."

The guard thinks about it. After all it did not bode well to hear the prisoner aching for days pending the arrival of Wrecker and since he didn't have the keys to the handcuffs, Keiichi could not in any case escape. "Fine, but at the slightest shady move you'll get a rifle butt in the knees." The guard knelt behind Keiichi, at the level of his watch.

"How do I take it off?" he asked.

"There is a small button on the side of the dial. Press it to detach the bracelet." Answered the captain.

The guard leaned upon on the button, and heard a small noise of air escaping. He had no time to realize that he was breathing in a fast acting sleeping gas before he collapsed to the ground.

"They had a few good ideas in those old spy movies of the 20th century that Urd likes to watch. In any case, thank you Sean Connery." Keiichi thought with amusement. The first part of the problem, namely to neutralize the guard was settled. Now, to remove these handcuffs.

Depending on the way in which it is attached, there are several ways to escape. Break the chair if it is fragile enough, or dislodge the bones of the thumb to remove the handcuffs if the hand is flexible enough. The handcuffs were too tight to allow to free himself using the latter method, and the chair was metal. However, Keiichi had already thought of all this and found a solution to this problem before neutralizing the guard.

His weapon.

Urd had trained him how for days. Seize the weapon, the flatten against the wall in such a way that it fired on the handcuffs, using the foot of the chair to press the trigger. It had to be very precise in order not to blow off one's own hand. In addition, he might have to adjust the frequency of power of the weapon so as to not burn his arm. Fortunately, the problem of heat did not arise, as Keiichi was wearing his space suit. Able to withstand heat of the order of 800 degrees. A true exercise worthy of the greatest acrobats. Keiichi had had great difficulty in mastering this movement but it proved very useful now. He had to move quickly however. Someone could come at any moment.

Keiichi succeeds his sleight-of-hand and freed himself, retrieving the weapon of the guard and his clothes. It was not as much sentimentality that by necessity. The guard was a little more massive that Keiichi and was a good head taller than Keiichi, which forced him to compensate for the differences between them. Fortunately, all the guards wore these species of hoods obscuring the essential part of their face. Surely a security measure in case they would be seen by eyes enemy, but who returned against them now. In effect, Keiichi could come and go almost freely in the vessel, without attracting attention, which would have been much more difficult if his face were exposed.

He had originally planned to go out with a shuttle and launch an SOS to his sisters. His captors would not have been able to find it because of the proximity of the star and when the Space Goddess, with its special sensors ultra-performance would happen to coordinates agreed he would have been saved.

Unfortunately, this vessel had no shuttle, only a few relief bubbles. Thrown in space with one of them was even more uncertain than to be in the ocean with a rubber buoy.

Keiichi could not keep his disguise indefinitely, sooner or later he would be unmasked. Certainly, he had taken the trouble to hide the body of the guard somewhere in the meantime, but when he would find that he had left his cell, the alert would be given, each man unmasked, and the whole vessel searched. He had to act very quickly.

He went in the room adjacent to the cell and used the communicator to contact Urd, in doing so, it would be discovered immediately, it should therefore leave the vessel just after he sent his message.

When Urd saw Keiichi appear on the screen, she smiled, reassured. "Captain?! You're well? Where are you?"

"Not the time to explain the details. Listen Urd, I will either leave the vessel or be held prisoner in a few moments. I want you to come to me immediately." Explained the captain.

"What is your position?" Asked Urd, returned suddenly serious and concentrated.

"Look. I am in the star area Alpha 19. Sector 1.4.2, coordinates... AX 200. You have a fix?"

"Star sector? But you'll burn like a torch if you go outside!" Exclaimed the changeling, in panic.

"I'm going to pull out in a relief bubble, fully charged. If you want to prevent me from burning up, you'd better get here soon. I have to cut the communication, I hear something, without doubt they already discovered my escape."

"But I..."

Keiichi snatched the intercom, and jammed the handle of the door with his weapon. That would win him the necessary time for charging the device of the bubble to the maximum before use.

The relief bubble is a device similar to a magnetic field, which protects from stellar radiation and heat, with the seat belt protecting him from the effects of gravity. The device is similar to two disks and that fit on the end of the arms, a bubble forming around the body, allowing you to survive for a certain time in space. Usually a few hours, or a few days depending on the hardness of the external conditions and the natural resistance of the bearer. Of course, close to the star, the heat and the flow of radiation are very high, too much for as the bubble takes for more than half an hour.

When the bubble was loaded, and the kidnappers trying to melt the door, Keiichi took a helmet from one of the suits in the room, used the mechanism and left the vessel, totally incapable of controlling the direction of the bubble, but knowing that after the path of the vessel it slips on the surface of the star crown, and would not attracted by the center of the star.

Urd, Skuld and Megumi were of course already in route at full speed to the coordinates expressed, nearly dying of grief. Never, until now, had their brother had taken a risk also enormous.

The black-headed adventurer leaped out into an inferno of raging light and heat into a hell of radiation flooding from the star whose orb jammed the firmament.

But as he leaped, Keiichi switched on his makeshift mechanism. Its generator and transformers began humming. It projected a spherical shell of light that completely enclosed the boy as he flew out into space, a "halo" or vibration-screen that would protect him from the star radiation which otherwise would kill him instantly!

Keiichi found himself floating in space. The raider ship was receding, a black mass surrounded by the blue flicker of its own halo. Then the ship was gone, unable to find him in the midst of cosmic energy flow. And the Captain, inside his space-suit and protected only by the fragile "halo" from the withering radiation, floated alone in space, only a few million miles out from the star

"The relief bubble isn't holding up as long as I had hoped at this heat…" he said when the lights on his helmet indicated various figures on the external conditions were more worrying that he had first thought.

Could his sister reach him in time, even in the super-swift "Space Goddess"?

"It's a gamble," Keiichi thought grimly. "And not the first one I've taken, but probably the biggest!"

Even through the filter-glassite helmet, the glare of the star was overwhelming. He seemed suspended above a titanic ocean of raving flame that filled the whole Universe. Soon heat began to invade Keiichi's suit. Keiichi turned the generator up to higher power, increasing the intensity of the "halo."

Before long, he had to turn it up again. And now the generator was beginning to falter, its small charge of atomic fuel depleted by the extraordinary demands made upon it to maintain the fragile screen of vibrations.

During this time, aboard the "Space Goddess", Megumi took the floor. "Quickly, time is of the essence!" said she worried, as if this reminder, who Urd and Skuld was well aware of, could fix things.

The heat was so enormous that the flames seemed to directly develop around the small bubble that protected the captain less and less.

"In principle it should be around here." said Skuld.

"I hope so." added the brain.

"Good, but where is he?" Wondered Urd, who was the most concerned of the three sisters.

But nothing on the hyper sophisticated scanners of the "Space Goddess" indicated the presence of Keiichi. Were they sufficiently precise? Had Keiichi overestimated the capabilities of his ship?

Two minutes passed. "This time, he is lost…" Megumi resign herself.

At this time the "Space Goddess" received a call. "Hello, this is Belldandy, do you receive me? Answer."

"This is Skuld. Talk."

"You won't find the captain here. He should be 5000 kilometers further, vector 5.3.8" declared the agent of the galactic Patrol.

"What? But how can you tell?" Asked Urd, astonished.

"Don't waste time, the Captain should be there. Go. "

Urd and Skuld looked, stunned.

"Explain!" asked Urd who had need of a valid explanation before to give up the search here, where her brother had told him that he would be.

"The one who kidnapped the Captain showed us images of him when he was a prisoner on board the craft. At that time, we could see a star and its environment by the porthole. According to the images and the stars surrounding I could use to the computers of the galactic police to perform the calculations for positioning and drift. In short, the Captain Keiichi should logically be located at the coordinates that I have indicated." Belldandy explained.

Urd, Skuld and Megumi rushed then to new coordinates, hoping that Belldandy was right.

The boy felt a queer chill, despite the stifling heat inside his suit. Could this be the end? Had he dared the space demons once too often?

"No, they'll come," Keiichi muttered doggedly. "My sisters won't fail me, and as though to confirm his faith, the Space Goddess swept out of the upper void like a streak of flashing fire! The teardrop-shaped little ship, the swiftest thing in space, had its shrouding blue "halo" out. It volleyed around in a dizzy turn and drove level beside Keiichi, its air-lock door open.

At this time that he allowed himself to sleep.

Later, while the Space Goddess was back in orbit around the moon, Belldandy had joined the vessel. "Do not stay planted there and do nothing. Skuld bring the ice, and Urd brought towels. I will remove the helmet." said Belldandy.

"No, leave it on." ordered Keiichi who seemed suddenly regain consciousness.

This was the bewilderment of everyone with a slight peak of anger.

"This is really not nice to pretend to be unconscious. We were very concerned about you." Bell snarled.

"I think he wanted to be pampered a little." Urd said with a slight grunt.

"Sometimes without any sense of tact." adds Skuld, in agreement, for one time, with Urd.

"I'm really sorry. I am just waking up. I didn't want to worry anyone. " said Keiichi before adding, "By analyzing the composition of atmosphere contained in this helmet we can know where it comes from, and therefore or direct our research."

Everyone stopped to argue. "Keiichi is alive and well and we are very happy." added Megumi.

"It is true, now I can leave reassured to the planet Bama." said Belldandy.

"Bama?" Asked Keiichi.

"Yes, one of the last two mines of Gravium is located there, and its director, Mr. Tamiya, was asked to do everything we can to try to protect it, which was our intention in any way."

I see. I also think that we also will have to go down there. Skuld, I have a job for you." Said Keiichi.

"What then?" Asked the girl robot.

"If I have understood correctly, this "Wrecker" managed to hack into the various fleets loaded to protect the mines. Surely he can do it again. I count on you for rapidly developing the measures to prevent him, equipping the "Space Goddess" and transmit a copy to all the vessels of the Galactic Patrol."

"It is as if it was already done." Said the girl of metal, delighted to carry out this type of work.

"Bell, no objection to us coming with you?" Asked the Captain.

"Of course not, I would be happy."

Shortly after, the Captain Keiichi contacted himself the President Sayoko. "Hello, Madam President? This is Captain Keiichi."

Of course, Sayoko Mishima answered immediately. "You're well Captain?" She asked simply but sincerely.

"Yes I am. I'm a little warm, if you can't tell, but that is okay. My kidnappers have been good enough to explain to me the situation, and Belldandy the measures that you have taken. Now, I'm calling you to formally request permission to act in order to neutralize this "Wrecker" at once." Explained the captain.

Sayoko laughed before the aspect of "formal request" of the query of Keiichi. "Permission granted." said she smiling before adding "I hope that you will succeed as quickly as possible. On my end, I am responsible for preventing any attack on the people who depend on the mines already destroyed. They are not happy as you might suspect, but I have been able to tackle a conciliation to share the Gravium in our reserves in the meantime before this case is finished. However, this will be futile if the other mines are destroyed. You know what will happen then I guess?" said the chairwoman which reflected its seriousness.

"Of course. Skuld is working already on the counter measures to protect the other mines, while Megumi is attempting to identify the origin of our aggressors. I have the feeling that perhaps they are not what they appear to be. When I was their prisoners, they appeared inexplicably strange. Their general attitude is not consistent with that of the peoples which they are derived. I understand that these are marginal but…. there is something fishy, I am sure".

"You have my blessing. Colonel Chihiro is already on Bama, she will provide you all the necessary support" said Sayoko.

"Thank you, that is very reassuring to know that Chihiro is on the case. Can you arrange a meeting with the directors of the five mines?" Asked Keiichi.

"For that of Bama and Mercury it shouldn't pose a problem. Concerning the other three, I think I can do something. However, I do not think that one of them could be this Wrecker. They are men of business, extremely monitored by their key position by the exchequer of galactic power. It is unthinkable that one of them can play the interstellar terrorist without being immediately discovered."

"I am well aware. Even still I think that a meeting will not be unnecessary. I thank you in advance for your efforts." the captain said.

"You want to meet with them here on Earth?"

"No, I want to meet them secretly," Keiichi answered. "Wrecker, behind this plot will now think that I'm dead, killed by the solar heat. I want him to keep on thinking that, it will put him off his guard. So tell the Gravium magnates to meet me at a secret rendezvous in space, in the asteroidal zone, at position 39.5 outward, 18 degrees countersunwise, 0.2 below ecliptic plane. I'll be there on the 22nd, at noon galactic time."

"I'll televise the Gravium officials to be there," Sayoko exclaimed, "and to keep the whole meeting an utter secret."

Captain Keiichi off the televisor and turned to his three comrades.

"Get started for that space-position at once, Skuld," Keiichi asked.

"Very well Captain." answered the metal -girl.

A little later, while the "Space Goddess" sped to the meeting hastily organized on the request of Keiichi, Urd came search him in his cabin, he was in full conversation with Bell.

"Then it is to you that I own my life Bell. I cannot thank you enough." said he kindly.

"This is nothing. Sometimes, it is the noble Valkyrie who saves the poor prince in distress." Belldandy joked.

"Valkyrie?" asked Keiichi.

"Of old legends of a region called "Norway" on Earth. Valkyries would be goddesses of war or something of the kind."

That was a very long time ago that the "countries" of the Earth and their governments had disappeared. The USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, France… were no longer called countries but "regions". Moreover, some had changed their name. Brazil was called now "Doraleo" for example.

It is then that Urd entered in the room. "Excuse me Bell, I really would like to leave you giggling alone, but I have something to say to my brother. I am sorry to interrupt you for a minute?" She asked without really waiting for an answer other than "of course".

"Of course. I will let you and..."

"No no, stay Bell, you are concerned a little also, when I think about it" said quickly the changeling girl.

"What do you want tell to me Urd?" Asked Keiichi.

The sister of Captain, stepped up to him, smiling, and laid her hands on his shoulders. "Are you sure that you've recovered from that small experience of imminent death by stellar heat? Are you perfectly well now?"

Keiichi did not like at all the smile of his sister. "Yes, I'm absolutely fone, thank you for your concern."

"Very good, very good…" Said Urd, always smiling. At this point, the woman with brown skin took aim at Keiichi a slap such as he had never yet received. He fell to the ground under the impact and surprise.

"What are you doing?" He asked…. speechless.

"I'm not done yet." Said his sister, her face distorted by the fury. Urd jumped up to her brother and pushed him against the wall.

"NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN!"

"But Urd I… "

"THERE IS NO "BUT". I WAS SCARED TO DEATH, AND SUDDENLY I RECEIVE YOUR CALL, TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT YOU'RE GOING THROW YOURSELF AT A STAR! YOU IMAGINED WHAT I FELT? WITHOUT BELLDANDY I WOULD LIVE WITH THE IDEA THAT I HAD LEFT MY BROTHER TO ROAST LIKE A DUCK! WHAT HORROR!"

Belldandy preferred not to intervene. Urd was right and Keiichi deserved a small lesson.

"Urd, there was no other solutions." Said the Captain.

"Don't start with that. You're a smart guy, you would have been able to find something else. Destroy their engines, for example, or empty a portion of the air from the vessel to suffocate them. I'm not saying that it would have been easier, but you should have probably succeeded. Jump into a star. No buts, and then what happens the next time? You'll eat a micro black hole and transform yourself into a singularity perhaps?"

While he rubbed his cheek, Keiichi looked down. "Urd, I am sorry. Forgive me." He said sincerely.

The anger of his sister gripped, she took her brother in her arms and let fall a few tears. "Never again! Swear!"

"I swear."

A few moments passed, then Urd released her grip. "I'll leave you now. I need a drink, it'll do me some good." She said simply, leaving Keiichi with his beloved.

The Brain, working intently on the space-suit atmosphere clue, listened to their televisor as the "Space Goddess" hurtled out through the stellar spaces.

An Earth news-caster's taut voice reached her "ears". "Grave situation caused by the mysterious disasters to the Kalem, Oranean moon and Sigoon I Gravium mines," he was saying. "Panic is becoming evident as the public fears similar disasters to the Mercury and Bama mines, which would shut off the Gravium supply completely.

"This panic is rapidly paralyzing space-traffic! Space-sailors of many ships are refusing to leave their native worlds, for fear their equalizers wear out on the voyage and new ones prove unobtainable." Shipping lines have had to cancel many sailings. And this is having disastrous effects already upon the life of every world in the System.

"The grain-boats from Denephean haven't sailed, and most worlds face a bad grainshortage. Meat shipments from the Boomean ranches are dwindling. Sea-food consignments from Bama have dropped to a trickle. Worse still, industries which depend on metals and materials from other worlds are having to shut down. All interplanetary colonization projects are canceled, from lack of equalizers."

Unemployment is mounting, prices skyrocketing, ruin threatening, on every world!

"People fear a complete collapse of interplanetary traffic. If the remaining Gravium sources are destroyed and no more equalizers can be made, we'll be thrown back into the dark ages before space-travel began, the ages when each world was completely isolated. Progress will be set back by centuries!"

Megumi had been listening, her work with the spectroscope on the atmosphere-clue temporarily forgotten.

"That danger is real" she muttered. "Danger of the collapse of the interplanetary civilization that has taken so many decades to build. No wonder people are in panic!"

"Aye, lad," repeated the Brain, her lens-eyes brooding. "But who would want such a collapse to occur? What can be the motive of this Wrecker whose organization is striking at the Gravium sources?"

Captain Keiichi left Bell and went forward into the transparent-walled control-room. The automatic pilot was maintaining the "Space Goddess" on its course, while Skuld and Urd sat playing "compound chess."

"Compound chess" was a semi-scientific game Keiichi had devised. There was a board of a thousand squares, and each player had ninety-odd pieces representing the different elements. The idea was to move the element-pieces onto squares occupied by the opponent's elements, so as to form known scientific compounds. Whoever formed the most compounds, won the game.

Urd was fidgeting restlessly, glowering at Skuld who sat like a metal statue studying the board with her gleaming photoelectric eyes, while Banpei gnawed playfully at his impervious metal arm.

"Well, go ahead and move!" Urd finally exploded. "You know you're beaten, my next move will win the last compound."

"I'll move when I'm ready," Skuld boomed calmly.

Finally the robot girl reached her metal hand and moved her "radium" piece far across the board to the square of Urd's "chlorine!"

"Radium chloride, that's the last compound and it's mine," Skuld boomed triumphantly. "I win the game."

"Better luck next time, Urd," chuckled Keiichi.

"She always wins!" Urd said disgustedly. "I'm through playing her, how can a woman beat a machine?"

"Take control and pilot straight to the rendezvous, Skuld," Keiichi asked.

"We're nearing the asteroid zone."

The "Space Goddess" rushed on through the void. Far ahead in the abyss swam the brilliant white speck of Jupiter, and the fainter green sparks of Mercury and Neptune.

Close ahead stretched the great belt of cloudy specks that was the wilderness of thousands of asteroids and meteor-swarms which whirl between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Most interplanetary shipping avoided this dangerous zone. That was one reason why Keiichi had chosen it for the secret rendezvous.

The robot steered expertly through the maze of meteor-swarms and booming planetoids. Finally, they glimpsed ahead a cluster of five small, swift-lined space yachts, floating together not far from the edge of a great meteor-swarm.

"The Gravium magnates are here," Keiichi commented. "Space-suit on Urd, you and I will go over to them. Skuld, you'd better stick around the "Space Goddess", Megumi, continue analysis on the air inside the helmet please.

"While I'm waiting, can I try to find some heavy metals over in those meteors?" Skuld asked, pointing toward the nearby drifting swarm. "I want some for Sigel, she's hungry."

"My little girl is always hungry," said Urd, smiling.

"Go ahead, Skuld, but don't go far," Keiichi said.

The boy led the way out of the airlock. He and Urd in space-suits, they leaped out from "the Space Goddess" side toward the five space-yachts.

Despite the grave urgency of their mission, Keiichi felt a thrill of elation as he and Urd shot together across the narrow gulf of empty space. It was good to be out in star-decked space again, after the long weeks of quiet research on the moon.

One of the five small yachts shone with light. The two comrades entered its airlock, and a moment later were inside. In this space-yacht, besides a crew of three hardy Earthmen space-sailors, were six men who came forward with startled exclamations as Keiichi and his sisters appeared.

The directors of the mines were already waiting for the captain in a room when they saw the "Space Goddess'.

"Gentlemen, I believe that here is the Captain Keiichi. " Said one of them, a muscular man with brown hair.

 _Who is Wrecker? What does he gain exactly by destroying the mines of Gravium? What will the meeting with the directors of the mines accomplish, and will be able to help Captain Keiichi fight back?_


	6. The Goddess

First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of TheManTimeForgotI therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.

 **06) The Goddess.**

 _Gravium, the ore that allows different species to exist on others planets by controlling gravity is threatened. Of the five existing mines in the galaxy, three was destroyed by a mysterious individual who calls himself "Wrecker". The dreaded bandit managed to capture Captain Keiichi, who nonetheless managed to escape narrowly by launching himself to the sun aboard a rescue bubble. He was brought to the brink of death by his sisters and especially Belldandy who managed to locate him before the bubble broke. To face the threat, Keiichi asked President Sayoko to secretly organize a meeting with the directors of the five mines._

Keiichi came into the waiting room where the men he had requested to meet. For a moment it was tense. Keiichi was used to that feeling. When people saw him the first time, no one accepted the idea that this average ordinary boy was the famous Captain Keiichi, they always had an incredulous reaction.

"Captain Keiichi?" said one, extending his hand. "Glad you're here. I've heard a lot of your abilities. Hope it's all true. I'm Toraichi Tamiya, president of the Bamean Gravium Company."

Toraichi Tamiya was an Earthling who looked as hard and unyielding as a block of granite. His square, stony face, cold eyes and clipped speech gave more the impression of an engineer with a simple mind instead a domineering, aggressive capitalist.

"Let me introduce my colleagues: Nicholas Verrel, head of the Mercury Gravium Company, Quarus Tull of the Kalem company, Orr Libro of Oranean moon; and Kerk El of Sigoon I. All competitors of mine, of course. But competition doesn't count at a time like this. Emergency's too grave for that. This destruction of Gravium mines must be stopped. At once!"

Then the magnate jerked a thumb toward the younger man beside him. "Hikozaemon Ootaki, my company superintendent. Brought him along. Thought you ought to hear what he has to tell."

Ootaki was a wiry Earthling engineer of twenty-four with blonde crew cut hair, a big smile and a pair of sunglasses.

"Say, this is an honor, Captain Keiichi," the superintendent said eagerly, looking respectfully at the boy and his two sisters.

"Nice to meet you gentlemen, I am Keiichi Morisato" said the young man, sitting down before asking a question. "Have any of you any idea as to the identity of "Wrecker"? Who is he and what's his motive?"

"I'm sure I can't guess," clipped Julius Gunn. "Must be an irresponsible madman."

Kerk El, the Sigoonean, laughed mirthlessly. "You would say that, of course, Tamiya."

Tamiya turned his cold gaze challengingly on the Sigoonean. Keiichi Morisato also looked sharply at Kerk El.

The Sigoonean was the youngest of the five magnates. Like all those of his species he had pink skin, a coiled face and a prominent skull with red scabs.

"What do you mean by that?" Captain Keiichi asked.

Kerk El'seyes flashed. "I mean I find it strange that only the non-Terran mines have been attacked".

"Yes, it would not be surprising that Verrel and Tamiya, with the help of your government, wanted to ensure the monopoly on Gravium. We have already seen such maneuvers." adds Quarus Tull the Romacean.

Toraichi Tamiya stared contemptuously at the accusing Sigoonean. "You're out of your mind, Kerk El. Feeling bad about losing your mine. So you accuse Verrel and me of doing it. Sheer nonsense."

"Of course it's nonsense," put in Orr Libro, the Oranean magnate, smoothly. "We didn't come here to quarrel among ourselves but to get Captain Keiichi's help in this thing."

Orr Libro was a middle-aged Oranean dandy, big-chested, his red, hairy head and face smoothly groomed, his voice a soft purr.

"My own company's mine on Oranean Moon is ruined, too," he said, "but that's no reason to accuse our friends here of doing it."

"Our friends?" echoed Quarus Tull, in his harsh voice. He laughed gratingly. "Since when were Tamiya and Verrel anybody's friends? Both would cut anyone's throat for profit."

The Romacean was wrong. Neither Tamiya or Verrel were such men, but like a Romac native, it was in his nature to always suspect the worst from others. It was too often justified, on Romac.

Tull was glaring suspiciously. Blue-skinned like all his race, with pale eyes squinting from a bony face, he had the thin, rangy body and slightly bowed legs.

Tamiya snorted contemptuously at the charge. "You've always been jealous of the Bamean and Mercurian Company's success. All of you. That's why you make these wild accusations."

"You deny the accusations, then?" Keiichi asked coolly.

"Deny then? Of course I deny them!" barked Tamiya, "I had nothing to do with the mysterious disasters to their mines. In fact, I'm afraid my own mines on Bama are menaced. That's why I took the trouble to come here."

"We're worried out on Bama, Captain Keiichi," Ootaki said troubledly. "Mr. Tamiya's three big submarine mines may be threatened. Mysterious accidents that have occurred lately have made us afraid of sabotage."

"The field that I discovered, and I put into operation on the planet Bama is the most important of all, by far, the production is the highest, and only I have a mining permit. So of course these gentlemen are trying all sorts of maneuvers for years to get me to "share".

Orr Libro, the Oranean, interrupted in his soft, purring voice. "Your company had the only Gravium concession on Bama, my dear Toraichi," he said. "But that is not so any longer."

Tamiya stared at him. "What do you mean? Say, what's in your mind, man, don't palaver like all your race."

Orr Libro's drooping eyes flashed fire. "My race had a mighty civilization on Oranea when Earthmen were still halfapes! Twenty-six dynasties of Oranean kings reigned in glory when…."

Then, as though his mask of polished courtesy had only momentarily slipped, Libro's red face smoothed, "But that is not important now. What is important is that the Galactic Government has granted to the companies of Kerk El, Quarus Tull and myself concessions to develop new Gravium mines on Bama."

"What?" yelled Toraichi Tamiya, thoroughly aroused. "You're lying. The Government gave us sole Gravium concession on Bama."

"It did," Orr Libro agreed, "but conditions have changed. It's vital now that the supply of Gravium be increased. That's why our three companies are now permitted to mine on Bama too."

"You don't like that very well, do you, Tamiya?" mocked Kerk El, and the Oranean magnate smiled grimly also.

"It's a damned outrage!" Tamiya declared. "My company developed submarine mining in the Bamean ocean. We did the pioneering and advance work. Now you three come sneaking in to cut in on us…."

Tamiya stopped, his granite jaw shutting like a trap, his eyes narrowing.

"Now I see it!" he clipped. "You, Quarus Tull and Kerk El, or one of you, wrecked your own mines so that you would be able to coax a Bamean Gravium concession from the Government."

"Why would they want to destroy their own valuable mining properties?" Captain Keiichi demanded bluntly of Tamiya.

"Bah, their mines are no longer valuable," the director replied. "Gravium nearly exhausted in all of them. Running without profit. They've all been envious of my Bamean concession. From what I know, they may have destroyed their own mines to pose as victims and blame us, then under the threat of military retaliation, forcing us to share for free instead of buying our Gravium. About this "Wrecker", if that is not a puppet, he must be a terrorist committed to the plan and who has no idea of the real issues."

Voices rose hotly in denial and counter-charges. Suddenly the televisor-set in the wall buzzed sharply. Ootaki answered the call. The face of a worried-looking, human appeared in it.

"It's Gygo, one of our company officers on Bama!" Tamiya exclaimed. "What is it, Gygo?"

The man in the televisor answered quickly.

"You asked me to call you in case of more trouble, sir. Well, we've had two accidents in Mine One and another in Mine Two today. Trouble with the tubeways and pumps, sir."

"More of the mysterious accidents that have been occurring out in our submarine mines, Captain Keiichi!" Hikozaemon Ootaki exclaimed.

"Ootaki and I will return at once," Toraichi Tamiya told the Gygo crisply. He swung around to Keiichi Morisato. "We've got to return to Bama, Captain. Can't stay here listening to myself accused of crimes, while my own mines out there are having trouble!"

Keiichi shot a question at the Mercurian magnate, Verrel. "I haven't heard you deny the charge of Kerk El and Quarus Tull. In fact, I did not hear you at all. Now only your mine hasn't suffered any accident."

"Yes, I guess so far luck is with me for the moment. With your permission I will see if all is well."

Verrel then left the room, under the suspicious gaze of Keiichi and the other directors.

Keiichi Morisato considered his position. He hadn't learned much from the magnates, but he had learned something that pointed the same way as his atmosphere clue. He wanted to follow it up.

"Very well, gentlemen. You may all go. But I'll be seeing you all again, perhaps sooner than you think." Keiichi bade them farewell.

He was silent in thought as he and Urd returned to the Space Goddess.

Skuld was still out meteor-mining, it seemed. Keiichi called him on the wave of his pocket-televisor. "Return, Skuld."

"Coming, Captain," came the robot's girl booming answer from the instrument.

The five space-yachts of the Gravium magnates disappeared one by one in the direction of Mercure, and distant Bama.

o0o

"What do you make of it all, lad?" Megumi asked.

"One thing stands out," Keiichi declared. "The only Gravium company which has had no trouble is…"

He stopped suddenly. He felt a queer chill. Then, with sudden insight, he glanced up through the window. Two black space-cruisers, from one of which a long gunlike tube projected, were swooping down toward the Space Goddess!

"Wrecker's set an ambush here for us!" Keiichi yelled. "They're using that paralyzing-weapon to freeze me until they can finish us off!" He sprang toward the control-room.

"Their paralyzer won't work this time!" he blazed. "I took care to put ray-proof pads over my spinal centers, on the way out here. Take the proton-gun, Urd!"

The two black ships of Wrecker, just overhead now, loosed from their atomguns a hail of shining, deadly flares aimed at Keiichi's ship.

But Captain had slammed the cyclotron switch and yanked back the throttles. With a roar of rocket-tubes, the "Space Goddess" leaped and avoided the deadly flares.

In an instant the two black attacking craft and the "Space Goddess" were circling, looping, rolling in a mad dogfight through the heart of this dangerous asteroidal wilderness.

"We're leaving Skuld behind!" cried Urd, from the breech of the big proton-gun to which she had leaped.

"We'll come back for her later. Try to get one of those ships before they box us in!" Keiichi yelled to the android. As he piloted the tear-drop ship in the whirling, circling fight, Keiichi turned and shouted back to the Megumi.

"Meg, this attack by Wrecker's ships means that Wrecker knew I was still alive and knew that I'd be here at this time."

Locked in a death struggle, the Space Goddess and the two black attackers plunged wildly on through the asteroid wilderness.

o0o

Skuld the robot girl watched Captain Keiichi, Urd and the Brain plunge across space to the waiting ships of the Gravium magnates. Then Skuld began preparations for exploring the nearby meteor-swarm in search of heavy metals.

"There ought to be lots of copper over in those meteors, Sigel," the robot girl told her "niece", "Maybe even gold or silver."

Sigel's eyes gleamed hungrily. The little blob could not hear Skuld's words in the space without atmosphere, but she got the thought behind them, for on the airless, soundless Rigel world, where Sigel's species had evolved, she and other species living in environments with no atmosphere, had developed a communication mode, which remained a mystery to scientists.

Skuld went out through the airlock. She did not put on any space-suit for she never had to breathe. Sigel did not breathe either, and so the blob could survive in airless space too.

Sigel clung tightly with her blob body to Skuld's metal shoulder as the great metal girl leaped out from the "Space Goddess" toward the swarm of meteors. Using the reactive kick of a tubular rocket-impeller, Skuld shot toward the swarm.

"There is a likely looking meteor, Sig," the robot boomed, her glowing photoelectric eyes peering ahead. "We shall see what we find there."

Skuld had floated into the meteor swarm. On all sides could be seen great, jagged black meteors that floated and turned and ground together like flotsam of space.

The robot girl impelled herself toward one of the largest of the jagged masses.

Landing on it, he put the blob down.

Sigel scrambled away across the pitted, jagged black rock surface of the meteor.

She stopped and began to dig furiously with her strong acid secretion.

"There's nothing better here than nickel and iron," Skuld declared after some minutes. "We will try another meteor."

She leaped off the jagged mass with Sigel, came to rest on another spinning meteor-mass. Again the two began digging. Suddenly from the pocket-televisor at Skuld's side sounded the buzzing call-signal, followed by Captain Keiichi's voice.

"Return, Skuld."

"Coming, Captain," Skuld answered hastily. She picked up Sigel, who was munching a copper fragment. "Come, Sig, we must hurry!"

Skuld started back out through the meteor-swarm toward the "Space Goddess", her rocketimpeller kicking her along through space. Then the robot girl, looking ahead, saw something that made her shout.

Two black space-cruisers were diving out of the upper void onto the "Space Goddess"!

Their atom-guns were spitting shining death-flares, but Skuld saw the "Space Goddess" whirl suddenly aside and avoid the flares. Then the tear-drop ship and the two attackers circled, looped and dived away, proton-beams and atom-flares crisscrossing. Locked in deadly struggle, the three ships receded.

"Wait, Captain, I am coming!" Skuld yelled vainly, urging forward with all the power of the rocket-impeller.

But the "Space Goddess" and its two antagonists were already disappearing in the asteroidal wilderness. Struggling like hawks of the void, they passed from sight.

"We must follow, Sigel!" Skuld cried. "Captain will need us!"

And, kicked forward by repeated blasts of his impeller, the metal girl followed through space in the direction in which the three ships had disappeared.

Sigel, clinging to Skuld's shoulder, peered with bright, scared eyes. She blob knew there was righting, and the blob wanted no part of it. She believed in peace at any price.

But Skuld's strongest emotion had been aroused, her love to her brother. On and on through the jungle of meteor-swarms and booming planetoids he went, like a great metal projectile propelled through the void by her impeller's blasts.

A misty white speck loomed ahead. It grew in size at appalling speed, into a small, tailless comet hurtling toward them.

Skuld hastily swerved out of the way. The small comet passed, its coma's electric force tingling through them. And still Skuld kept on. She had no sense of time, no thought of peril. Now there was no sign of the "Space Goddess" and the other two ships. Fear came to the robot. Had the two attackers destroyed the ship of her familly and then sped away?

She tried calling the Space Goddess on her communicator, but it was only good for short distances, and she got no answer.

Abruptly, Skuld's rocket-impeller went dead, its charge exhausted. And now the robot floated helplessly in space, drifting powerlessly through the great zone of space-debris and asteroids.

"Don't be afraid, Sig," she reassured her panicky "niece". "Captain will come back and find us."

Skuld became aware that she was floating slowly toward a small green asteroid in the distance. It was a little world of no more than a hundred miles in diameter, she estimated, and she knew it had atmosphere because of the faint atmospheric halo around it.

Faster and faster the metal girl and Sigel floated toward that green little world. She saw now that it was covered with forests of tall reeds, green except for areas of brown, dead reeds. Pulled by the little planet's gravitation, she fell toward it, and presently crashed down through the air to its surface.

The shock shook Skuld up, but did her no real harm. This planetoid's gravitational pull was so weak, and her metal body was so massive, that she felt quite uninjured. The communicator at her side was smashed, however. Sigel, thanks to her perfectly adaptable body, was not hurt either.

Skuld got to her feet. Her gravitation-equalizer made her the same weight as ever, even on this small world. She found that she had fallen onto a grassy clearing in the towering reeds. Nearby was a huddled village of wicker-huts. And closer to her, staring in awe at her, stood a horde of humans.

By the brilliant starlight that is the day of the asteroidal zone, Skuld perceived that these people were really human. They were small, timid, simple mind.

In the 22nd century, many human settlements were constructed in the asteroid belt of the solar system from Earth. They were there simply to extract the minerals present in huge quantities. However, some environmental groups, who advocated a return to simpler lifestyles, decided to go into exile on some of these asteroids, judging the planet Earth "contaminated by technology" and other humans as "having betrayed mother nature".

They came here to settle, deliberately choosing the asteroids that might harbor life with some modifications, and poor in energy resources in order to avoid that in the future a "clean and impious technology" to be developed.

The asteroids were modified into habitable space. Humans who chose to live there abandoned technology and returned "to the simple joys of nature." Many regretted their choice after a time, but with their spaceship and means of communication destroyed, they were forced to live the life they had chosen. There are some "purges", some fell in the most barbaric savagery, "sacrificing a few for the good of all".

Earthly governments of this era refused to intervene, aware that the problems occurred on Earth from other cultures, particularly at the beginning of the previous century, rarely ended well.

Today, communities that have survived have returned to a similar wildlife at the stone age, totally unaware of their Earthly origins and existence of humans across the vacuum of space.

These communities were called "Asteroidans".

"There are Asteroidans on this world, Sigel," Skuld boomed, staring at the "human".

And Skuld, as he spoke to the scared blob, saw the Asteroidans recoil in panic from the sound of her voice.

"It speaks? It is alive!" went up panicky shouts.

Skuld understood them, for she knew something of the Asteroidan tongue. And their words nettled the robot.

"Of course I am alive!" he boomed angrily. "Why should you think otherwise?"

The appearance of the angry robot, towering like a massive metal statue, her great arm raised, and the weird little blob clinging to her shoulder, was an alarming spectacle in the brilliant starlight.

The Asteroidans shrank back, still more terrified.

Skuld grunted. "These people are not intelligent, Sig. Doubting that I'm alive! And why are they so terrified of me?"

The terror of the Asteroidans had suddenly increased. They were pointing beyond Skuld, and screaming "A Dridur! A Dridur!"

Puzzled, Skuld turned. The robot stiffened. Out of the brown, dead reeds behind him an incredible monster was coming. It was myriopodal, with a black body like that of a gigantic python supported on dozens of short, powerful legs. Its head was a nightmare of coldly blazing faceted eyes, wide jaws, and cruel fangs.

While the ancestors of the Asteroidans had modified these little worlds, they also imported and adapted, from Earth, some forms of life to their needs, through genetic manipulation. The result was disastrous for them. As in the case of this descendant of centipedes.

The creature had apparently been about to raid the village for prey. That the Asteroidans feared the monster above all else was evident from the way in which they were flying for shelter.

But the Dridur had noticed that Skuld did not flee. The creature turned toward her, poised a moment, then shot toward her with appalling speed, a charge of incredible swiftness, Skuld tossed Sigel aside and reached forward her great metal arms.

Skuld was particularly hateful of such creatures. When humans began to colonize the Moon, some ships had brought with them all sorts of insects. Most, of course, had perished in a vacuum and the icy cold of the moon. Not all though. By a miracle of evolution, some species were able to adapt to this iced environment, without air, with a gravity six times smaller, and survive despite the lack of food, rather eating certain metals and energy forms present in the soil.

Unfortunately, some of these insects had developed an appetite for computer circuits. Just think: From metal and energy. Yum. Every three months, the girl of silver metal, should do an audit of the computer systems of the lunar base where she lived with her family and the "Space-Goddess". These "bugs" as she called them, were her enemy daily.

In addition, these things had become particularly resistant. They had learned to survive in the lunar environment, so they did not need to breathe, and therefore the good old insecticides had become totally useless. Icing on the cake, the more they ate, the more they grew larger. Some were as big as cats. Skuld had found only one solution to get rid of: crush them. With a big hammer. Of course she could use his own hand but it was too disgusting.

It really was a dirty job, morally and physically. She was so furious at the sight of this "cousin" bugs and decided to treat it her classic manner: by crushing it. No need to use its anesthetic or blinding bombs. Anyway, this creature was clearly too dangerous for humans in the area to be left alive.

Next moment, the Dridur struck her and knocked her over. But she had gripped the monster, was grappling with it.

The Dridur's fangs clashed furiously on Skuld's metal arms and legs. But not even those teeth could make impression on the impervious metal of the robot's body.

The creature at once coiled its many-legged body around Skuld, to crush her.

But Skuld had got a grip on the monster's neck, and had not let go. Now the robot squeezed tighter and tighter. The myriopodal monster's coiled body threshed in ferocity and agony.

Even in anger, Skuld had no pleasure in killing the animal. A reluctant action despite the usual result. But all evidence pointed to the fact he used to consider Asteroidans which were human, as his natural prey. No doubt he had already devoured many.

Weird battle of the great robot and the nightmare Dridur, beneath the brilliant stars of the asteroidal sky! A battle that had for witnesses only the panicky Asteroidans peeping from their huts, and the scared Blob cowering in the reeds.

It should be noted that the fear of Sigel was due to an infantile reflex and not to the danger of the situation. She could secrete acids to dissolve the metal which would have killed the Dridur in an instant and anyway with her nature, Sigel wouldn't have been harmed.

Skuld's photoelectric eyes blazed, her hands made a wrenching movement of awful power. The Dridur's snaky neck snapped. The creature went limp, its coils sliding to the ground. The robot stood still, her metal body scratched, her eyes blazing.

And now the Asteroidans rushed joyfully from the huts.

"She has slain a Dridur!" they cried incredulously, "She has slam the monster that cannot be killed!"

Sigel, seeing the battle over, crept out of the dry reeds, cautiously eyed the dead monster, then covered the carcass of the creature and used her acid to dissolve it, leaving only a tiny pile of formless matter. Sigel looked up as though to say, "Well, we two certainly finished that thing!"

"She is a goddess, a metal goddess who came to us from the sky to protect us from the Dridurs!" the Asteroidan chief shouted.

"Praise the goddess from the sky!" rose the cry.

Skuld stalked into the village, followed by the joyously shouting Asteroidans.

The big robot sat down on a rock and then spoke to the Asteroidans in their own language.

"Bring copper and silver and gold please. Sigel is hungry."

"The goddess eats metal!" whispered the human awedly.

They hastily brought silver ingots, nuggets of raw gold, scraps of copper they had collected for weapons and ornaments.

Sigel began devouring the gold and silver with gusto, Skuld, who felt the need of renewing the atomic energy which activated her own body, hoped her brother came back quickly, in order to charge her batteries.

The awe-struck people watched Sigel greedily devouring all the gold and silver.

Skuld gave orders to bring more. Her obsequious worshippers hastily obeyed.

Then the Asteroidans, gathered in the dim light, began a long chant humming the prowess of their new goddess from the sky. Each time the chant rose, the gathered throng bowed low toward the great metal robot sitting facing them, beneath the eternally brilliant stars.

Skuld was enjoying her godesshood. After all, she knew she had the name of a Norse goddess even if she had nothing in common with the mythological Skuld. She was amused and flattered inwardly. But the great silver robot girl was deeply troubled by the thought of her brother. How was she to rejoin Keiichi? She had no way of leaving this little world now. And even if the Captain came searching for her, she couldn't call the Space Goddess on a broken communicator. She was marooned!

o0o

Keiichi steering capabilities were excellent, the same level as that of Urd, although lower than that of Skuld. He now utilized all his skill in the struggle with the two black ships who attacked the Space Goddess.

Diving, zooming, corkscrewing through space in a series of dizzy maneuvers, the boy fought to evade the deadly Proton flares that the two enemy ships continued to fire upon him.

Keiichi Morisato had a fighting grin on his tanned, handsome face, and his brown eyes were blazing as his strong hands shifted the brass control-throttles with lighting swift movements. Even in this moment of deadly danger, fighting against outnumbering enemies, his adventure-loving soul savored the thrill of it.

And it was thrilling, this death-combat through the spinning meteor-swarms and booming planetoids of the zone, this giddy whirl and swoop and rush out here in space beneath the eyes of the solemn stars!

"They're going to trap us!" Urd yelled.

"They're closing in…"

The two enemy ships were seeking to catch the "Space Goddess" in a cross-fire of atom flares that would soon destroy it.

"Hold on, Urd!" Keiichi shouted back. "Here's where we take the bumps, stand ready to gun that outward ship!"

The Captain's keen eyes had spotted a big meteor-swarm ahead, in the path of the running fight, and his quick brain had instantly devised a daring and desperate plan.

As the two black attackers came closer, Keiichi's right hand jerked down a burnished red lever in the control panel, while his left hand opened a throttle suddenly wide.

The "Space Goddess" suddenly spouted a tremendous flood of glowing ions from its rocket-tubes as the red lever was pulled, a shining cloud that enveloped the teardrop ship and swept back in a long, flaring tail. It was as though the ship had abruptly become a real Comet! It was Captain Keiichi's method of camouflaging his craft.

Simultaneously, the ship swerved sunward and bore directly on the attacker on that side. The spectacle of the flaring, glowing "Space Goddess" coming at them was too much for the men in that ship. Their pilot swerved his craft instinctively away.

That swerve was fatal. It took the black ship right into the meteor-swarm that they were coasting. In a moment, before they could escape from the swarm, the attacking craft had crashed head-on into a veritable hell-nest of meteors...

Their reinforced hull, however, did allow them to escape annihilation, though their ship was severely damaged.

"That got them!" Urd yelled triumphantly. "Now, the other one, Captain"

Captain Keiichi's clever maneuver had disposed of one attacker. He had already turned the "Space Goddess" in a vicious swoop toward the remaining enemy.

"Now's your chance, Urd!" he shouted.

Until now, Urd had been unable to use the proton-canon effectively upon the two antagonists on different sides. But now the situation, was changed, with the reduction of the enemy by half.

As the flaring Space Goddess looped over and leaped at the remaining enemy, the brown skin girl was already bringing the proton-guns to bear. Through the hail of atom-flares from the enemy there lanced the pale, deadly proton beams.

They caught the surprised antagonist craft in the tail, wrecking its rocket-tubes.

Both vessels were now severely damaged and disabled. Urd had been careful not to target vital systems.

"We will approach them, capture them, and make them confess." said Keiichi victoriously. He did not have the opportunity, at this moment, both ships exploded simultaneously.

"They self-destructed!" Urd gasped in amazement.

"No I do not think so. The two explosions occurred simultaneously. I rather think that someone blew them up remotely. Wrecker likely."

"This guy is the worst kind of junk." Urd cursed.

At this moment the screen on the side of Keiichi broke into a frantic buzzing, an emergency call on all wave-lengths.

Keiichi snapped on the instrument. In the screen appeared the frantic face of Kerk El, the Sigoonean Gravium magnate.

"HELP! CAPTAIN KEIICHI! I AM ATTACKED BY UNKNOWNED VESSELS! I HAVE NO WEAPONS! I CAN NOT DEFEND MYSELF! 4.2.6-4 IS MY CURRENT POSITION! IT IS NOT VERY FAR YOU! HELP!"

"We're on our way." Keiichi said.

"What the devil… is all space alive with Wrecker's ships?" gasped Urd. "Two that attacked us, and now one that's attacking Kerk El!"

The Space Goddess flashed out from the asteroid zone in the general direction of Kerk El. In only a brief time they sighted the space-yacht of Kerk El. It was floating aimlessly in the void, and its hull had been riddled in scores of places by Proton-flares.

"Too late!" swore Urd. "And the ship that did this got away!"

Keiichi turned to the Brain. "Megumi, will you and Urd sweep space with the electroscope and see if you can pick up the trail of the ship that did this?"

"I can try, but considering all these meteorites, I cannot guarantee the result." Megumi replied.

The boy was hurriedly donning his space-suit.

A moment later he was aboard the wrecked space-yacht. Inside it, one look was enough. Kerk El and his three-man crew were all dead. They had died of the cold of space even as they were trying to put on their space-suits.

Sorrowfully, Keiichi returned to the Space Goddess. The Brain was searching space in all directions with the tube of the electroscope, a delicate instrument that could detect the recent course of any space ship by the trailing ions of its rocket-discharge.

"If Megumi can pick up the trail, we'll split space after them till we catch them and capture them!" Urd exclaimed.

"First, we've got to go back into the asteroidal zone and pick up Skuld," Captain reminded her.

"Devils of space," Urd swore, "I forgot about Skuld roosting in that meteorswarm. It'll spoil our chance to overtake that ship!"

"Got the trail, lad!" rasped the Brain. "The ship that wrecked Kerk El's yacht headed straight toward Mercury from here."

"Mercury, eh?" Keiichi said, frowning. "Then we're going there after it, soon as we pick up Skuld. I want to investigate Verrel's Gravium outfit on Mercury."

"You think maybe Verrel is Wrecker?" Urd asked.

Keiichi shrugged. "We SUPPOSE Wrecker is one of the six Gravium officials who met us in that secret conference. Only they knew we'd be there, only one of them could have planned the ambush to get us. And now that Kerk El is dead, we have five suspects. But just like the inquiry about the Space Emperor, it does not necessarily mean that one of them is our culprit. It may be a simple agent working for Wrecker, or one of them being unwittingly bugged."

Captain Keiichi opened the throttles and sent the Space Goddess streaking back into the asteroidal zone like a new, true comet.

"We'll pick up Skuld and then hit the trail for Mercury with all rockets open!"

But when they returned to the meteor-swarm where Skuld had been left, there was no sign of Skuld, nor did the robot answer their communicator calls.

"Something's happened to big sis!" Keiichi exclaimed, his face anxious.

"Perhaps she tried to follow us through the zone when she saw us fighting those two ships," the Brain suggested.

"We'll cruise in that direction," Keiichi said worriedly.

But as the shining "Space Goddess" cruised on through the jungle of asteroids and meteors, no answer came to their calls. Then Urd pointed to a small green asteroid on their sunward side. A red, winking spark of light flared on it.

"That might be a signal, chief!" the shapeshifter said.

"It can't be Skuld," rasped the Brain. "She'd simply call us on her communicator…. and she hasn't called."

"We'll investigate anyway," Keiichi decided.

He swept the "Space Goddess" in toward the asteroid in a flaring rush. They ripped down through the thin atmosphere and saw now that the red flare came from a great section of burning dry reeds.

"There's a little village of some kind, and there's Skuld!" Urd yelled, hopping delightedly.

"So you're glad to see her after all?" Captain Keiichi grinned, himself relieved.

Urd checked her elation. "Ah, this is not for Skuld I think. It is rather for Sigel."

They landed in the smoky red glare of the burning reeds, by a hut-village whose human people stared in fear. Skuld came stalking quickly to them, Sigel clinging to her shoulder.

"Bro, I was afraid you wouldn't come!" boomed the robot, her photoelectric eyes shining. "I saw the Space Goddess flaring through the sky and recognized it, but my communicator was broken and I couldn't call. So I had some of my people here fire the reeds as a signal."

"Your people? What do you mean?" Urd demanded.

"These people recognize my true worth, Urd," Skuld answered loftily. "They think I am a goddess from the sky."

"Goddess... I think it's been 10 years since we had not done that joke. It is true that dad called you Skuld, in reference to the Norn of the future of the old Norse mythology, and me, Urd, the Norn of the past. Except that, first, the Norns are not goddesses but "Jotuns", and secondly, we lack Verdande for to be the Norn of the present. So if you are a goddess, I'm the princess of the fire giants in this mythology, and Keiichi is Siegfried, the hero unable to feel fear." Urd said with amused irony.

"Fear? What's this? Can I eat it?" Asked Keiichi, laughing.

The Asteroidans were timidly crowding around Skuld now, staring at Keiichi and his two sisters. The chief spoke to Skuld.

"Are these your servants, goddess from the sky?" the Asteroidan tribal leader wonderingly asked the robot.

"Me? Skuld's servant?" Urd howled.

"They are my family," Skuld boomed to the chief, "and I am going back with them to the sky."

A wail went up from the primitive Asteroidans. "But you must not leave us!"

"I will return sometime," Skuld declared. "Farewell!"

As the Space Goddess screamed up from the little world, Keiichi looked back and saw the disconsolate human staring after them.

"I hate to leave there, in a way," Skuld boomed thoughtfully. "They were good people. They gave Sigel and me plenty to eat."

"We will return and we will help," Keiichi said. "Because somehow they worship you , I guess we have already interfered. Not a big deal, we can probably help them without deciding their future".

Keiichi sent the "Space Goddess" flying out of the asteroidal zone, the sun at their face, the faint of Mercury and more distant Bama beaconing ahead.

"We're rocketing for Mercury, Skuld," Keiichi told his robot sister, and explained briefly what had occurred.

"And if we trail down Wrecker's ship there, you'll see some fireworks!" Urd added.

Some minute later as the tear-drop ship ate up the millions of miles, hurtling toward the white disc of Mercury, the first planet. Finally, Mercury bulked as a great white sphere filling half the starry firmament.

"Head around to the night side of Mercury, big sis," he directed. "According to my maps, the Gravium mine is there."

Skuld, who held the controls, obeyed. The ship's "Space Goddess" camouflage now cut off, she shot the craft around to the dark side of Mercury.

Mercury, the closest and smallest planet in the solar system. A metallic planetary core that occupies 40% of its mass (against 17% for the Earth). Surface temperature: 179 ° C on average.

Mercury is best known for being the first Gravium mine discovery by humanity, thanks to astronaut Mark Carew. The deposit though smaller than the others, enabled humans to begin the conquest of space. Several centuries later, the deposit is still active. Its production is sufficient to cover the needs of the entire solar system but no more.

Of course, the space surrounding the mine has an artificial atmosphere and a protective dome. The dome is an ancient type, built before the invention of force fields. However, it is much stronger and even proton weapons could not destroy it.

"Only the lure of Gravium would ever induce men to stay long on this planet," mustered the Brain, staring downward.

"There're the lights of the Gravium mine, down in, the valley beyond that big volcano!" Urd exclaimed.

Captain Keiichi had seen. In a long, narrow valley at whose head a huge white volcano; were clustered lights.

"That should be the office building at the side of the valley," Keiichi commented keenly. "Land there."

Presently the Space Goddess came to a landing in the semi-darkness near the metal office structure.

Keiichi turned, to the Brain.

"Megumi, will you use the electroscopes and see if you can detect the rocket-trail of any ships that have landed here recently? We know Wrecker ship that got Kerk El came on to Mercury."

"I'll see what I can learn, lad," Megumi promised.

"Skuld, stay here and help Megumi with the instruments," Keiichi asked her sister.

"Come along, Urd."

He and the shapeshifter emerged from the ship into the darkness. The gravitation equalizers had already automatically compensated for the changed gravity. The air was sulfurous, pungent to the nostrils. And there was a constant, dim tremor of the rocky ground beneath them, a ceaseless faraway muttering of thunder as of distant storm.

"I don't like this cursed planet any more than Skuld does," declared Urd.

"There there's a good chance that this is the lair of Wrecker" remarked Megumi.

"But there is not a single spaceship in sight and it's eerily quiet for a large mine." Skuld added.

Everything was deserted. The lights were on but nobody was present. Even the guard fleet was gone.

"Everyone had to run away on hearing that Captain Keiichi and his sisters arrived." Urd said.

"No. If these bandits had wanted to hide, they would not have come here knowing very well that our radars could afford to follow them, even with difficulty, to their destination." Retorted the Captain.

That's when Keiichi heard a noise behind him. He turned drew his pistol.

"Who's there? Go on, show yourselves."

Nicholas Verrel, director of the mine, came forward timidly.

"Verrel? What are you doing here?" Asked the boy.

"I saw your ship land. As everyone is gone, I came to see you, hoping that you could help me." The director replied simply.

"Why everybody is he gone? Where is the defense fleet?"

"When I returned from our meeting all was well. Apparently the fleet left. Panicked, my staff ordered the evacuation. They were unable to reach me and left an explanatory note on my desk. Then you arrived. I hope you bring me good news." Explained Verrel.

"Kerk El is dead." answered Keiichi, scrutinizing a reaction on the part of his interlocutor.

"Dead ... I'm sorry for him. He was a respectable man and a competent businessman. Our mines were not in direct competition and we had agreements to not infringe on the business to each other." Said the director with a sad look.

"Really? Nothing else?" Keiichi asked, still looking for a tell from the director.

"A small thing, but I do not know if it has a report. Just before arriving I saw on radar four unidentified spaceships were heading here. Lately four Gravium transport equipment disappeared. I thought it might be them returning."

"Describe these spaceships please."

"They were black, shaped like sharks, heavily armed with two powerful Proton cannons, with a great "fin" on top". Verrel explained.

"The spaceships we fought!" Urd confirmed.

"Do you know why the defense fleet is gone? It's simply unthinkable." said the captain.

"No explanation. They just left like that, I have found no answer. But I confess that I haven't had much time to search. I myself was considering leaving. Only here, with everything that's going on right now, it seems very dangerous".

"Your story seems very reasonable mister Verrel, but I am wary of Wrecker. He may have drawn us here to have a free hand elsewhere."

"It is beyond me Captain. I'm just a businessman. My enemies are the quotas of Gravium to provide monthly and resisting certain political pressures. Terrorists, vessel disappearances, employees who run away, it's not my habit." explained the director.

 _Is Verrel telling the truth? And if so, who is Wrecker? Why is Mercury's defense fleet gone? Has Keiichi's crew fallen into a trap?_


End file.
